Millions of Poles received an RCB alert on Friday morning with the phrase „badz przygotowany” (original spelling) and a link to the „Safety Guide”, but the government website didn’t load. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski stressed that this was not a cyberattack.
The Government Security Center (RCB) sent the alert one day after a Russian missile was detected in Polish airspace. As of around 10:50 on Friday 31 July, the linked page was still unavailable. Gawkowski said there was no attack and no failure, and that the RCB guide was working, but enormous network traffic on government websites caused by public interest was slowing it down.
– We have no attack, no failure. The RCB guide works, but we have enormous network traffic on government websites, resulting from high interest, and this causes overloads and may result in longer page loading times – explained Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski.
Missile incident and siren dispute
On Thursday 30 July at 3:40, an unidentified object was detected in Polish airspace. An F-16 fighter jet was sent to identify and intercept the missile, but the object disappeared at around 3:46. Its fall site was located near the village of Tarnawa-Kolonia, the Operational Command of the Armed Forces said in the morning. The investigation found that it was a Russian Ch-101 missile containing a significant amount of explosive material.
The event triggered a lively debate about warning sirens. Residents of nearby towns did not receive an SMS RCB alert after the incident, so in practice they were confused and didn’t know what had happened. The institution declared that it would draw conclusions and change these procedures in the future.
Phishing concerns and mObywatel plans
The cybersecurity outlet ZaufanaTrzeciaStrona pointed out that RCB is „teaching people to click links in SMS messages”. Cybersecurity experts have for years urged caution when opening links in text messages due to the danger of phishing, i.e. fraud and attempts to steal data or money.
Gawkowski assured that the mObywatel app will include a module with threat warnings, but it won’t solve the problem of reaching all Poles in a crisis. The app is used by 12 million citizens, while the RCB alert reached 30 million people. The scale of SMS distribution was exactly what caused the temporary unavailability of government websites.
– I encourage you already now, because in the mObywatel application you can use the „Safety Guide”. The fact that there is such great interest in reading it is very good – assessed the politician.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. PAP
