Poland’s cultural grants system attacked, data leak possible — RMF24
In Poland, hackers attacked the System for Handling Programs of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, through which applications for funding cultural projects and scholarships are submitted. The ministry said it cannot rule out a leak of users’ personal data, RMF24 reports.
According to the ministry, the cyberattack on the sopprogramy.mkidn.gov.pl platform occurred on October 6 and was detected on the same day. The sopstypendia.mkidn.gov.pl portal for submitting applications for the culture minister’s scholarships also operated through the system.
The system was taken out of service
Following the cyberattack, the SOP system was taken out of service, access to data was blocked, and measures were taken to protect it. The incident was reported, among others, to Poland’s Personal Data Protection Office.
The ministry prepared a backup procedure that allows already awarded funding to be implemented and current project reporting to be carried out outside the SOP system. The ministry’s spokesperson, Piotr Jędrzejewski, said this procedure is being provided to the applicants concerned.
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What data may have been compromised
About 24,000 users are registered in SOP: approximately 14,000 accounts are linked to the culture minister’s programs, while another 10,000 are linked to scholarships. The ministry said it found no traces of data being copied or transferred outside, but does not rule out the possibility of a leak.
The potential leak could include first and last name, residential and registration addresses, business address, telephone number, email address, PESEL number, the series and number of an identity document, citizenship, country, and bank account number. The ministry recommended that users block their PESEL numbers and remain cautious due to the risk of fraud.
The system was introduced in the autumn of 2024. More than 13,000 projects were submitted through it for the culture minister’s programs for 2025 under 32 programs, for which 537 million zlotys were allocated. Announcements of calls for the 2027 programs were postponed due to work to restore access to SOP.
