Polish government safety guide alert crashes servers after missile scare

Alert overloads government servers

On Friday morning, the Government Security Centre (RCB) sent an SMS alert to all residents of Poland with the message "MSWiA: bądź przygotowany. Pobierz: poradnikbezpieczenstwa.gov.pl". The link pointed to a digital version of the "Safety Guide", a publication first made available online in August 2025 and delivered in paper form to nearly 17 million households around the turn of the year. Within minutes, the surge in traffic overwhelmed government servers. Spokesperson Karolina Gałecka confirmed that the interest far exceeded expectations, with 150,000 download attempts recorded in a single minute. Many users saw error messages, and the Downdetector service registered widespread problems with gov.pl domains.

Today the Government Security Centre sent links with the guide to residents. We are recording enormous interest and visits to government websites precisely via the link concerning the 'Safety Guide'. This interest exceeded our expectations.

Context: missile incident and criticism

The alert arrived one day after a Russian cruise missile entered Polish airspace near Lublin on 30 July. Air-raid sirens sounded in Lublin and Krasnystaw, but no SMS alert was sent to inform the public. The silence from state institutions drew sharp criticism from opposition figures and citizens. Expert Mariusz Marszałkowski described the warning system as archaic, designed for threats from 80 or 90 years ago, and noted that even SMS notifications often fail to address what is truly important. Opposition politician Łukasz Kmita wrote that the state managed by Donald Tusk's team looked like it was made of plywood and cardboard tied with string, while MP Janusz Cieszyński demanded that Minister Kierwiński "stand in the truth" about the malfunctioning link.

The notification system is archaic. It is adapted to threats that existed 80, 90 years ago, when aviation appeared and observation posts were set up on the outskirts of cities to inform duty officers deeper inland that anti-aircraft sirens needed to be activated.

Government response

Minister of Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński insisted on the X platform that the link was correct and working, though users across the country continued to report access problems. Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski moved to calm the public, stating that the situation was fully under control and that no attack on Poland had occurred. He pointed out that the guide remained easily accessible through the free mObywatel application. Gawkowski also noted that sending a link to 30 million people at once would predictably generate a traffic spike, adding that specialists had quickly increased bandwidth limits. The Centralny Ośrodek Informatyki worked to expand server capacity throughout the morning.

It is worth remembering that sending a link to 30 million citizens in a single moment, as the RCB did, can cause excessive interest, and even children will know that network traffic will intensify.

What the guide contains

The safety guide was prepared by the Ministry of Interior and Administration, the Ministry of National Defence, and the RCB in cooperation with nearly 60 experts, local governments, services, and NGOs. It draws on experiences from other countries, including Sweden. The publication is divided into four parts: introduction, preparation, response, and a crisis plan. It covers topics such as assembling an evacuation backpack (with bottled water, a first-aid kit, documents, and cash), understanding alarm signals, evacuation procedures, shelter locations, and behaviour during fires, floods, blackouts, air attacks, and chemical or radiological threats. Information on shelter locations can be obtained from municipal offices, State Fire Service and Volunteer Fire Service units, and the National Headquarters of the State Fire Service website.

Planned improvements

Minister Kierwiński acknowledged that every such incident is a reason to review procedures and said that from the first days of Prime Minister Tusk's government, procedures have been verified to ensure optimal reactions. He announced that in the coming months a dedicated warning application will be launched, possibly integrated into the mObywatel platform. Additionally, after future alarms are lifted, residents are to receive SMS alerts with information explaining what happened. Gawkowski confirmed that the RCB is working on making such communications available quickly, so that after an alarm is triggered, an explanatory message can be sent without delay.