Polish police restore data network after nationwide outage

The news in Polish

1. awaria  (f.)
   nagłe uszkodzenie urządzenia albo systemu, przez które przestaje on działać poprawnie ↩︎
2. informatyczny
   związany z komputerami, programami i przetwarzaniem informacji ↩︎
3. sieć  (f.)
   połączenie wielu urządzeń (np. komputerów) tak, aby mogły wymieniać się informacjami ↩︎
4. patrol  (m.)
   grupa policjantów lub żołnierzy, która chodzi, jeździ lub obserwuje teren, żeby pilnować porządku ↩︎
5. naprawić
   spowodować, że coś zepsutego znowu działa dobrze ↩︎
6. usterka  (f.)
   małe uszkodzenie lub błąd w działaniu urządzenia albo systemu ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: What could the police still do while the data network was not working?

Question 2: How long did it take to fix the problem with the police data network?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
awaria  (f.)	breakdown / failure
informatyczny	IT / computer / information-technology
sieć  (f.)	network
patrol  (m.)	patrol
naprawić	repair / fix
usterka  (f.)	fault / defect / malfunction

Read the full story

The Polish police have reported and then resolved a major technical failure affecting part of their national IT infrastructure. The disruption concerned the Policyjny System Transmisji Danych, the police data transmission network, and temporarily affected access to key systems used in daily work.

Polish media, including the conservative channel TV Republika, first reported that the National Police Information System (KSIP) and the Command Support System (SWD) were not functioning properly. These systems are used, among other things, to check information about people and vehicles and to support the coordination of police operations.

Following these reports, the National Police Headquarters (Komenda Główna Policji, KGP) issued an official statement on the social media platform X. The police confirmed that there was an IT incident, but explained that the problem was limited to devices in the police data transmission network. According to the statement, the servers on which police systems operate continued to work normally.

The KGP stressed that the failure did not paralyse police activities and did not endanger public safety. The police underlined that officers use many independent IT systems and communication channels. These parallel tools, they said, allowed them to continue receiving emergency calls, dispatching patrols and carrying out interventions despite the difficulties with the data network.

In its message, the police also stated that they had initially ruled out external interference, such as a cyberattack, as the cause of the failure. They pointed to the high complexity of the network architecture and explained that a full diagnosis would take time. Information about the situation was sent to all police units in Poland, and communication between regional units and the National Police Headquarters was, according to the KGP, maintained on an ongoing basis.

Several hours after the first media reports, the police published a follow-up communication. They announced that they had completed the diagnosis of the problem in the data transmission system, identified a malfunctioning device and restored the proper functioning of police IT systems. At that stage, a verification process was under way in individual regional commands (garnizony) to confirm that all elements of the system were operating correctly.

Polish news outlets presented the incident in slightly different ways. Some early reports highlighted the unavailability of KSIP and SWD and suggested that these were “key” systems for police work. Later, as official information appeared, coverage increasingly reflected the police position that there had been no breakdown in basic services such as emergency response or internal communication. Across the media, it was reported consistently that the police had publicly denied any complete shutdown of their operations.

The incident occurred in a wider context of concern about cyber security in Poland. In recent months, Polish authorities have spoken publicly about cyberattacks on the country’s energy infrastructure. Government representatives, including Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have indicated that some of those attacks may be linked to Russian state-backed groups, although they also noted a lack of definitive proof. However, in the case of the police IT failure, officials have emphasised that they do not currently see evidence of a similar hostile operation.

For observers outside Poland, the event illustrates how critical digital systems now are to everyday policing, and how quickly technical problems can become a topic of public debate. While media reports initially focused on possible disruption, the final official message from the police is that the failure was limited in scope, internally resolved and did not stop officers from protecting public safety.

Info: ‘Polish Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Polish’, a language school dedicated to teaching Polish online. Through our various online Polish classes, we provide learners with information, practice materials and updates to support their study of the language.