The website of Poland’s ruling Civic Platform (PO) party was targeted by a cyberattack on Friday, a senior party official said, just hours before the start of a campaign blackout preceding Sunday’s first round of the presidential election.
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The election pits liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, a prominent member of PO, against historian Karol Nawrocki, who heads Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, and far-right nationalist Slawomir Mentzen.
“Since 9:00 a.m. a DDoS attack has been ongoing on the http://platforma.org pages. The main PO page and the additional one, intended for campaign donations, have been temporarily disabled,” Jan Grabiec, head of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s chancellery, wrote on social media platform X.
“We are working with CERT NASK (the national research institute dealing with cybersecurity) to restore functionality”.
European governments have been on heightened alert for signs of electoral interference since Romania cancelled an ongoing presidential election in December following allegations of Russian interference, which Moscow denied.
Civic Platform’s IT systems were also targeted by a cyberattack in April.
