The pro-Russia Ukrainian hacker group CyberBerkut brought down at least 37 Polish web sites in response to Polish criticism of Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Sites affected include those of the president of Poland and the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
An apparent list of targets was posted on CyberBerkut’s page, although some of the sites appear to now be periodically available. They seem to have been picked somewhat indiscriminately, including sites of the Polish Green Association, an environmental nonprofit organization, and Polish artist Gregor Gonsior.
The hackers, who previously have claimed responsibility for attacks on NATO sites, replaced content on many of the targeted pages with a graphic that references the massacre of Poles in Volhynia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943. The hacker group posted an English version on its website.
Poland has been critical of Russia’s involvement in Ukrainian affairs and led calls for sanctions and an increase in NATO military presence around Russia. That’s even though Poland is one of the countries that’s been most harshly affected by the sanctions, according to Jaroslaw Janecki, chief economist at Société Générale’s Polish unit.