Two state websites belonging to Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency and Health Ministry were hacked Wednesday and used briefly to spread false information about non-existent radioactive threat, The Associated Press reported.
The government officials said that the incident bears “the hallmarks of a Russian cyberattack.”
The messages posted on the websites claimed of a supposed nuclear waste leak coming from neighboring Lithuania and threatening Poland. The false statement warned that the health and lives of Polish people living in an area close to the Lithuanian border were in danger. But the messages apparently did not gain much attention, The Associated Press notes.
Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for the head of the country’s security services said that “the whole story looked like a typical Russian attempt” designed to arouse suspicion and cause discord among Western allies.
According to Zaryn, a similar hacking attempt was observed last year, when attackers tried to spread fake news about a non-existent radioactive cloud heading to Poland from Chernobyl in Ukraine.