Cybersecurity in Poland Legal Aspects

This open access book explores the legal aspects of cybersecurity in Poland. The authors are not limited to the framework created by the NCSA (National Cybersecurity System Act – this act was the first attempt to create a legal regulation of cybersecurity and, in addition, has implemented the provisions of the NIS Directive) but may discuss a number of other issues. The book presents international and EU regulations in the field of cybersecurity and issues pertinent to combating cybercrime and cyberterrorism. Moreover, regulations concerning cybercrime in a few select European countries are presented in addition to the problem of collision of state actions in ensuring cybersecurity and human rights.

The advantages of the book include a comprehensive and synthetic approach to the issues related to the cybersecurity system of the Republic of Poland, a research perspective that takes as the basic level of analysis issues related to the security of the state and citizens, and the analysis of additional issues related to cybersecurity, such as cybercrime, cyberterrorism, and the problem of collision between states ensuring security cybernetics and human rights.

The book targets a wide range of readers, especially scientists and researchers, members of legislative bodies, practitioners (especially judges, prosecutors, lawyers, law enforcement officials), experts in the field of IT security, and officials of public authorities.

Most authors are scholars and researchers at the War Studies University in Warsaw. Some of them work at the Academic Centre for Cybersecurity Policy  – a thinktank created by the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland. 

Introduction.- Part I   Providing cybersecurity as a new challenge  for governments.- Cyberspace and cybersecurity.- Cyberspace as an area of legal regulation.- Cyberspace, cybercrime, cyberterrorism (F. Radoniewicz).- International regulations of cybersecurity  (F. Radoniewicz.- Cybersecurity in the European Union law.- National Cybersecurity System Act.- The New National Security Strategy of the Republic of Poland.- The Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland.-  The functioning of state power structures and cybersecurity.- Personal data protection in the context of the Act on the National Cybersecurity System.- Space security and cybersecurity in Poland.- Part II   Competences, obligations and tasks of entities  responsible for ensuring cybersecurity under the  national cybersecurity system (“imperious entities”).- Cybersecurity as a public task in administration.- The authorities competent for cybersecurity.- The main tasks of the network of Computer Security Incident Response Teams in the light of the Act on the National Cybersecurity System in Poland.- Tasks of the Minister of National Defence in the field of cybersecurity.- Role of the minister competent for computerisation in the cybersecurity system.- The duties and legal status of the Government Plenipotentiary  for Cybersecurity and the College  for Cybersecurity.- Part III  Obligations of other entities included in the national  cybersecurity system („participants”  of the national cybersecurity system).- Tasks of operators of essential services and digital service providers .- The obligations of public entities.- The system of control and supervision of operators of essential services,  digital service providers and entities providing cybersecurity services.- Monetary penalties in  the National Cybersecurity System Act.- The liability of entities providing services by electronic means for digital content.- Part IV Combating cybercrime as a special task in the area  of cybersecurity.- Cybercrime and cyberterrorism in Polish Law.- Cybercrime in selected European countries.- The entities and institutions in charge of combating cybercrime in Poland.- Operational activities in the field of cybersecurity.- Operational activities and the right to privacy.- Summary.- Biographies.- Bibliography.

Katarzyna Chalubinska–Jentkiewicz – dr. hab. of legal sciences (University of Warsaw and the Jagiellonian University), legal advisor, associate professor, and head of the Department of Cybersecurity Law and New Technologies at the Institute of Law in the Faculty of National Security at the War Studies University in Warsaw. She is also a lecturer at the SWPS University and director of the Academic Center for Cybersecurity Policy. In the years 1996–2010, she worked as a lawyer in the National Broadcasting Council and with the public broadcaster TVP S.A. Between 2011 and 2017, she was deputy director of the National Audiovisual Institute (her competence centered on the field of digitization). As a scientist, she conducts research on cybersecurity, information security threats, the development of electronic media law, protection of intellectual property, and the impact of new technologies on the development of the state and the legal situation of the individual. Katarzyna Chalubinska–Jentkiewicz is the author of monographs and numerous articles, which include topics such as new technologies law, cyber responsibility, information security law, and audiovisual media: Regulatory conflict in the age of digitization, Audio visual media services; Regulation in the conditions of digital conversion; Information and computerization in public administration; Cultural Security Law and Reuse of public sector information. She is head of the Ministry of Science’s research project “Polish cybersecurity system – a model of legal solutions.”

Filip Radoniewicz – PhD; legal advisor; adjunct in the Department of Cybersecurity Law and New Technologies at the Institute of Law, War Studies Academy, Warsaw;  expert at the Academic Centre for Cybersecurity Policy, War Studies Academy and in the Ministry of Justice; he worked as an assistant judge (in the Fourth Criminal and Sixth Penitentiary Department of the Regional Court in Lublin); graduate of post-graduate studies: "European Union Law" at the Jagiellonian University, "Human Rights and Freedoms", co-organized by the Institute of Legal Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and "Computer Network Administration" at the Lublin University of Technology; author or co-author of approximately fifty publications, mainly in the field of broadly understood criminal law, new technology law and human rights. Selected publications: F. Radoniewicz (2016) Odpowiedzialnosc karna za hacking i inne przestepstwa przeciwko danym komputerowym i systemom informatycznym /Criminal liability for hacking and other offences against computer data and information systems/, Wolters Kluwer, Warszawa; Ustawa o krajowym systemie cyberbezpieczenstwa. Komentarz /Act on the National Cybersecurity System. Commentary/ (2019) ed. W. Kitler, J. Taczkowska-Olszewska, F. Radoniewicz,  CH. Beck, Warszawa.

Tadeusz Zielinski – dr. hab., associate professor at the War Studies University in Warsaw, and vice rector for Scientific Affairs at WSU. Tadeusz Zielinski is a lecturer in the field of air power, unmanned aircraft systems, and global threats security. His scientific area of interest is defense and security, in particular the EU Common Security and Defense Policy and the theory and practice of the use of military aviation and unmanned (autonomous) air systems in conflicts and crisis response operations.