Cyberattack on Polish Power Plant Reveals Novel Hacking Method via Cellular Network
Poland's CERT agency disclosed a December 2025 cyberattack on a combined heat and power plant that shut down a turbine using an unprecedented method: pivoting through a private cellular network to reach industrial controls.
Polish cybersecurity authorities revealed on August 8 that hackers had penetrated a combined heat and power (CHP) plant serving 50,000 residents by exploiting a private cellular network (APN) in what CERT Polska described as "the first instance of this attack vector being observed in a real-world cyberattack." The incident occurred in December 2025 but remained under investigation for over three months before public disclosure.
Attackers compromised a wind farm connected to the same private cellular network, then pivoted through the network to reach controllers at the CHP plant, ultimately shutting down a turbine and the facility's water treatment system. The attack highlighted a critical vulnerability in Polish critical infrastructure: private telecommunications systems managed by utility operators were treating internal network traffic as automatically trusted, allowing lateral movement by intruders.
The attack method: Configuration errors allowed arbitrary devices on the private APN to communicate freely, creating a bridge between the compromised wind farm and the CHP plant's industrial control systems. Neither facility operated the network linking them, creating a shared infrastructure risk neither entity fully controlled.
CERT Polska warned organizations that private telecom infrastructure should not be assumed secure and urged utilities to verify network settings and restrict unwanted device-to-device communication.
What this means for foreigners: Employees working in Poland's energy sector, telecommunications, or critical infrastructure should be aware that cybersecurity remains a persistent concern. If you work in IT or industrial control, understand that supply chain and shared-network vulnerabilities affect many Polish facilities. Additionally, residents and expats should know that while authorities are actively investigating such incidents, critical infrastructure security remains an evolving challenge.
Sources
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