After drone incursion, Russian hackers target Poland’s hospitals, city infrastructure: Report

Poland has found itself at the sharp end of a coordinated campaign of Russian cyber aggression, according to recent reports. Officials in Warsaw suggested that hospitals, water systems and urban infrastructure have all come under sustained digital assault. '

This comes just days after the Polish military neutralised a drone over the capital and Nato aircraft intercepted nearly 20 Russian drones breaching the country’s airspace, Financial Times reported.

Sources close to the government indicated that the timing was no coincidence. They described a hybrid playbook in which Moscow was combining visible provocations in the skies with more insidious cyber operations aimed at paralysing Poland’s critical infrastructure.

What have Russian hackers targeted now?

Dariusz Standerski, Poland’s deputy minister for digital affairs, was quoted as saying that most of the 20 to 50 daily attempts at sabotage were successfully blocked, but a handful had slipped through. He disclosed that “mostly” hospitals were affected, with some forced to suspend operations for hours.

In those cases, attackers reportedly managed to breach digital records and gain access to sensitive medical data. Analysts warned that even short-term disruptions in healthcare could have dangerous consequences for patient safety, while data theft raised questions about long-term privacy risks.

Officials described this as part of a wider Russian strategy to exploit vulnerabilities in public health infrastructure, which is both highly digitised and chronically under pressure after years of rising patient numbers.

What happened to Poland’s water systems?

In addition to hospitals, hackers recently tried to infiltrate the water supply of one of Poland’s 10 largest cities. Standerski confirmed that the attackers gained access to internal networks and came close to disabling water flows before being stopped.

The government has since allocated €80 million specifically to shore up the cyber defences of water management systems. This forms part of a broader €1 billion cybersecurity budget for 2025, up from €600 million in 2024 — the largest such increase in Poland’s history, Financial Times reported.

Warsaw has framed these moves as essential not only for protecting residents but also for securing its 2,400 local administrations, which collectively oversee vital municipal services. Analysts noted the rare cross-party support in Poland’s fractious political landscape, highlighting that cyber resilience has become a matter of national survival.

Is Poland’s energy infrastructure safe?

The threats have not been confined to water and healthcare. In August, Russian hackers reportedly disrupted operations at a small hydroelectric plant near Gdańsk. Cybernews reported that attackers took control of the facility’s turbine systems, manipulating parameters to extreme levels and forcing generators to stop.

Data logs from the incident showed abrupt spikes in turbine speed and water levels, which experts confirmed as real-world consequences rather than a mere simulation, Cybernews reported.

This was the second time the same plant, believed to be located in Tczew, had been targeted. Earlier attempts in May were less successful because the plant was offline at the time. However, the August attack was described as the first to cause genuine disruption at a fully operational Polish hydropower facility.

Security specialists warned that such strikes fit into an emerging pattern. In recent months, hackers have probed or disrupted water treatment facilities across multiple Polish towns, sewage plants and even municipal swimming pools. These incidents pointed to a systematic effort to test vulnerabilities in industrial automation systems.

How big is this cyberwar?

Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski suggested in an interview that Poland was now confronting as many as 300 Russian cyberattacks a day — triple the volume recorded a year earlier.

He linked the surge directly to Poland’s role as a logistical hub for military supplies heading into Ukraine and as a safe haven for refugees fleeing the war. From Moscow’s perspective, he implied, this made Poland a prime adversary.

Observers noted that Poland was not alone. Norway, France and the United States have all seen water infrastructure targeted with hackers in Norway even manipulating dam valves to affect water flow.

Analysts argued that Russia was deliberately striking civilian utilities across Europe aiming to undermine public trust in state institutions and test Nato’s cohesion.

Drone incursion raises the stakes

These cyber strikes came on the heels of a dramatic aerial confrontation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk disclosed that a drone was intercepted flying over his official residence and nearby government buildings in Warsaw.

Two Belarusians were arrested in connection with the incident, though investigations are ongoing. Days earlier, about 19 Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace, prompting a rare direct engagement between Nato aircraft and Russian assets.

Nato denounced Moscow’s actions as “absolutely reckless” and announced fresh deployments of aircraft and air defence systems to the alliance’s eastern flank. Analysts suggested that the combination of drone incursions and digital attacks shows a deliberate Russian attempt to stretch Poland’s defences across multiple domains.

GPS jamming from Kaliningrad

Compounding these challenges, officials also flagged persistent GPS jamming originating from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave. Standerski explained that up to 30 jamming incidents had been recorded within short range of the border in the past year.

The interference has occasionally left aircraft without any GPS signal at all. Western intelligence agencies believe that such disruptions were behind an incident in March 2024, when a UK defence secretary’s plane lost navigation signals after departing Poland.

Authorities emphasised that while specific planes were unlikely to be targeted, the cumulative effect of such interference was to sow confusion and risk in international air traffic.

Is Poland so vulnerable?

Polish policymakers have framed the situation as evidence of a coordinated Russian campaign to weaken the EU’s eastern frontier. By targeting hospitals, water networks and power supplies, Moscow appeared to be testing not only Poland’s resilience but also Nato’s willingness to defend its most exposed member states.

Analysts warned that the hybrid nature of the threat — blending drones, cyber operations and electronic warfare — made it especially difficult to counter. The government’s decision to boost spending to €1 billion reflected an acknowledgment that piecemeal measures were no longer sufficient.

Poland’s experience illustrates the growing convergence of cyber and physical security threats in Europe’s east. While officials claim to block the vast majority of intrusions, the successful breaches into hospitals, hydroelectric plants and city water networks highlight the fragility of critical infrastructure in an era of hybrid warfare.

With Nato stepping up its military presence and Warsaw dramatically increasing its cyber budget, the confrontation between Russia and the West appears to be deepening — not just on battlefields, but in the very systems that sustain daily life.