Cyber criminals attack Poland. KNF alerts: 51,000 fake pages a year!

Poland faces an unprecedented wave of cybercrime, which hits the financial sector straight and threatens the savings of millions of Poles. The latest study by the consequence squad on Computer safety Incidents operating at the Financial Supervision Commission (CSIRT KNF) for the year 2024 is simply a real alarm bell. It reveals that in just 12 months of last year cyber criminals have created and introduced into circulation over 51,000 dangerous websites. This is simply a dramatic increase by 70 percent compared to 2023, erstwhile 30 140 fraudulent sites were registered. These shocking data show how rapidly and aggressively it evolves the threat in Polish cyberspace, making us all possible targets.

The Dramatic emergence of Threats: How Is the Wave of Fraud Growing?

The scale of the problem is alarming and steadily increasing. Long-term analysis shows that in 2022 specialists identified 17,200 dangerous sites, and even a year earlier, in 2021, there were 11,468 of them. This means that in just 3 years The number of fraudulent websites has increased almost 5 timesOh, my God! This dynamic clearly indicates the professionalization of cybercrime environments and their expanding method and organisational capabilities. Moreover, websites identified by CSIRT KNF were in the past year over half of all hazardous sites listed on the authoritative list maintained by CERT Poland, which included a full of 92,279 sites. This proves that the financial sector has become the main mark of the attacks, and Polish citizens are targeting fraudsters operating on an unprecedented scale.

False investments and sophisticated methods: Watch what?

CSIRT KNF experts are alerting: cheaters focus primarily on creating false investment platforms. These were 89.4 percent of all identified risksexactly 45,985 sites. Criminals usage sophisticated strategies to scope possible victims, massively promoting their false offers on social networks, online search engines and popular news and amusement sites. These campaigns are frequently targeted precisely, utilizing advanced user profiling algorithms to scope the most susceptible – including pensioners, people looking for additional income or fresh investors. In addition to the dominant investment platforms, cyber criminals besides actively make another forms of fraud: 4030 sites were utilized to conduct false surveys, 521 imitated courier services, 166 impersonated social networking sites, and 125 were false payment gateways, scamming bank cards.

Celebrities, politicians and AI: Who's behind the fraud?

Criminals know how to build trust. W 26 percent of cases deceivers utilized images of known politicians to make false interviews or recommendations. A small little often, due to the fact that in 14 percent, they were drawn into a trap utilizing celebrity images. What is highly disturbing, in 11 percent cases utilizing names and graphic characters State Treasury Companieswhich is simply a warrant of credibility for many Poles. Equally insidious are the offers of "help to recover lost funds", which appear in 11 percent of fraud, aiming at those previously injured. CSIRT KNF points out the increasing function artificial intelligence in creating increasingly convincing scams. AI allows criminals to make realistic visual materials, including fake movie recordings with known people, synthetic photographs or even completely generated identities. AI algorithms let personalization of messages, analysis of victims' behaviour and adaptation of attack strategies, which means that even those aware of cyber threats may fall victim to sophisticated actions.

Consequences for Poles and KNF activities: How do you defend yourself?

The effects of this wave of cybercrime are catastrophic. Although precise estimates are difficult, available data propose that Polish consumers may lose hundreds of millions of PLN per year. In addition to financial losses, victims frequently experience serious intellectual consequences specified as depression, fears or failure of assurance in institutions and technologies. In consequence to these threats, the Financial Supervision Commission is intensifying its educational activities, calling for peculiar care. Experts urge application of the rule limited trust: Any offer that appears besides attractive should be treated with suspicion and carefully verified. The CSIRT KNF, as a sectoral cybersecurity team, continuously monitors and analyses the activities of criminals, working with another financial authorities and institutions that introduce advanced systems for detecting suspicious transactions and improving identity verification procedures. Digital education, especially among seniors and young people, is besides crucial to build critical reasoning on content on the web.

In the face of the increasing professionalization of cyber criminals, the future of the fight against financial fraud will require even more advanced technologies on the part of law enforcement and financial institutions, including the usage of artificial intelligence to detect threats in real time. Harmonising government and improving global cooperation are key to effectively combating cross-border attacks. Only coordinated actions of all stakeholders – supervisors, banks, technological companies and consumers themselves – can effectively defend Poles from increasingly sophisticated forms of online fraud and reconstruct assurance in the digital planet of finance.