Poland, as a traditional partner of the Federal Republic of Germany, is a key player in European Union (EU) cybersecurity policy in several respects. As a large member state and an important gateway to the Baltic states, Poland holds a significant institutional position in EU and NATO decision-making processes (cf. NATO CCDCOE). It is considered one of the countries with a strong position in cybersecurity due to investments in infrastructure and defensive capabilities. Furthermore, due to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Poland also holds a central position in EU and NATO defense, as evidenced by the increased number of Russian cyber attacks on Ukraine, as well as the coalition of supporting states. Since at least 2014, Polish society, similar to Ukrainian society, has had to deal with disinformation, cyber espionage, and cyber attacks targeting critical infrastructure.
In this context, thanks to external funding from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the EuRepoC project partners have established contact with Polish researchers and provided the project website in Polish. This was the result of collaboration with the University of Lodz in early 2023. Additionally, opportunities for future collaboration related to the project have been explored with several Polish colleagues, including those from the European University Viadrina. In the planned second stage of collaboration, we aim to utilize additional funds from the German Foreign Office to expand primarily one area of collaboration, working with Polish researchers to develop analyses and innovative end products such as an expanded panel of cyber incidents, a series of short papers, reports, or articles on selected research topics. We are particularly interested in cyber incidents related to Ukraine, the descriptions of which will be translated into Polish and made available to Polish-speaking audiences. This is especially important for products such as profiles of advanced persistent threat (APT) groups and descriptions of significant cyber incidents (MACI), which are used for training purposes, or materials containing technical terms, such as evidence assessments in attribution processes.