GRAY-ZONE WARFARE: Researchers say Russian government hackers were behind attempted Poland power outage.
Last week, Polish Energy Minister Milosz Motyka told reporters that the attempted cyberattack on December 29 and 30 saw hackers targeting two heat and power plants, as well as trying to disrupt the communication links between renewable installations, such as wind turbines and power distribution operators.
Motyka called the incident the “strongest attack” on Poland’s energy infrastructure in years, with the Polish government blaming Moscow for the attempt. Local media reported that the attacks could have knocked out heat and power for at least half a million homes across the country.
On Friday, cybersecurity firm ESET said it obtained a copy of the destructive malware, which it calls DynoWiper. This type of malware, known as “wiper” malware, is designed to irreversibly destroy data on computers to prevent them from working.
ESET attributed the malware with “medium confidence” to the hacking group known as Sandworm, a unit within Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU, based on a “strong overlap” with its previous research into Sandworm’s past malware, including the group’s use of destructive malware to target Ukraine’s energy sector.
Tangentially related: Poland sends hundreds of generators to Ukraine as Russia strikes energy system.