Politically-motivated hacktivists are becoming increasingly adept at performing sophisticated cyber-attacks to cripple crucial national infrastructure. In what represents a warning to other countries, Poland's intelligence service has announced that attackers succeeded in breaching water treatment facilities in five Polish towns in 2025.
A new report, published by Polish Intelligence, says that attackers targeted water treatment stations in Jabłonna Lacka, Szczytno, Małdyty, Tolkmicko and Sierakowo. In some of these towns, the hacktivists succeeded in gaining access to industrial control systems that could have disrupted supplies.
"Attackers, gaining access in some cases to industrial control systems, had the ability to alter technical parameters of devices," reports Polish intelligence, creating "a direct risk" to the continuity of water supply operations.
The attacks have not yet been attributed to a specific political group or nation state. But according to Polish Intelligence, these attacks could be traced to a nation state, and Poland has faced intensified hostile cyber activity in 2024 and 2025, "with particular emphasis on the special services of the Russian Federation".
Potentially lethal consequences
There is also a far more sinister aspect to these types of attack on water supplies, the consequences of which are potentially far more lethal than simply creating temporary water shortages. Water treatment facilities also control the levels of chemicals used to purify water supplies. These can be tampered with to turn tap water into lethal poison, with devastating consequences for civilian populations. As long ago as 2007, Iran conducted a cyber-attack attempting to increase chlorine levels in the water flowing to residential areas during a wide-ranging cyberattack against Israel's water systems.
According to Polish Intelligence, Russian intelligence services have carried out large-scale reconnaissance in Poland in preparation for sabotage operations, with targets including critical infrastructure and public facilities, as part of a long-term campaign aimed at destabilizing NATO and European Union states.