An Analysis of Threats to the Polish Cybersecurity Infrastructure Between the Years 2010 and 2023. Part II: The Years 2017-2023 Cover Image

Analiza zagrożeń polskiej infrastruktury cybernetycznej w latach 2010-2023. Część II lata 2017-2023
An Analysis of Threats to the Polish Cybersecurity Infrastructure Between the Years 2010 and 2023. Part II: The Years 2017-2023

Author(s): Marceli Herman, Michał Sitarski
Subject(s): Security and defense, Politics and law, Present Times (2010 - today)
Published by: Oficyna Wydawnicza AFM Uniwersytetu Andrzeja Frycza Modrzewskiego w Krakowie
Keywords: cybersecurity; cyberspace; cyber incident; cyber infrastructure; state security system; cyber threat;

Summary/Abstract: As a member state of the European Union, the collective security institutions of NATO, the UN, the OSCE, the WTO and other organizations, which include its involvement in Polish-Ukrainian military cooperation, the Republic of Poland faces numerous and multilateral cybersecurity threats. It is also exposed to the activity of external bodies (such as hacker groups and intelligence agencies). In order to optimize cybersecurity in Poland, it is necessary to introduce changes of a legal, organizational and technical nature that will provide cyberspace and its users with the desired level of security, alongside a guarantee of appropriate cooperation in individual elements of the security system of the state. This study is a continuation of an analysis of the threats to Poland's cyber environment presented in the article An analysis of threats to the Polish cybersecurity infrastructure between the years 2010 and 2023. Part I: the years 2010-2016 published in 2024 in issue 3 of the quarterly "Bezpieczeństwo. Teoria i Praktyka". The aim of this paper is to describe cybersecurity threats that arose between the years 2017 and 2023, and also to pay attention to their transformation and development, the latter being shaped by social, political and military factors. The main research question is of a descriptive nature and numerous threats to the cybersecurity infrastructure of the country are mentioned. Special attention is paid to three fundamental issues, namely, threats to Polish cybersecurity between the years 2017 and 2023, statistics concerning cybersecurity incidents that were actually reported and confirmed during this period, as well as investigations into the level of security of government websites using the early warning system ARAKIS-GOV. Statistical and comparative research methods are employed in order to analyze quantitative data and the features of the phenomena under investigation, with the aim of identifying similarities and differences. A comparative method was used to compare types of cybersecurity threat, the number of cybersecurity incidents that were actually reported and confirmed, and the level of security of websites, paying attention to the amount of traffic recorded in relation to previous years. A statistical method was used to analyze quantitative changes in the number of reports and incident alerts generated by the ARAKIS-GOV system, the amount of traffic recorded compared to the alerts generated in the network, as well as changes in the incident statistics for the years 2017-2023. The main research issue was to determine what types of threat had the greatest influence on the deterioration in the functioning of Poland's cybersecurity infrastructure between the years 2017 and 2023.

  • Issue Year: LIX/2025
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 103-118
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish
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