1991
In the spring, NASK begins its mission: to organize computer communication for the Polish research and academic community. At that time NASK is called the Warsaw University Coordinating Team and is led by professor Tomasz Hofmokl from the Warsaw University Faculty of Physics in Hoża street (in the picture).

Professor Hofmokl was the Director of NASK until 1999. He passed away on the 5th September 2000. 

December 1991
The U.S. lifts the ban on Internet communication with Poland. This allows Poland to be fully connected to the international Internet. NASK becomes Poland's first Internet operator and ISP.

May 1992
NASK's first satellite link to Sweden - at 38,400 kbps. Previously NASK connected Poland to the world via Denmark (at 9600 kbps).

November 1993
The first Polish WWW server is set up in Hoża street, featuring the pioneer of Polish portals - Polska Strona Domowa or Polish Home Page. 

December 1993
The old NASK is transformed by the State Committee for Scientific Research into the Research and Academic Computer Network research and development organization.

1994
NASK already works at full steam, for example, extends its WAN (Wide Area Network) and starts building WARMAN - the first Polish MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) for Warsaw.
Following long analyses, the network is based on the ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) technology, which - at that time - is still in the trial stage. The decision turns out to be a success. WARMAN becomes operational in 1995.

NASK acquires VPN Service Sp. z o.o. Since August 28, NASK has been the owner of all VPN trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property. NASK also accepts VPN contractual obligations valid on the VPN insolvency declaration date.  NASK does not take over the company's liabilities. As of the notarial deed date, VPN employees become part of the NASK team.

November 2002
The NASK Research and Academic Computer Network (NASK) becomes part of the so-called Centres of Excellence network, selected in the 5th Framework EU and PHARE program. The "Centre of Excellence" title is awarded for the Centre of Competence in Internet Security Area (COCISA) research project. The main objective of the project is to create a research and development integration centre for IT technology security in the Central Europe. The COCISA was prepared by the Polish CERT team within NASK.

The Polska.pl portal, maintained by NASK, opens a section called "Towns in Archival Documents" that presents documents, photos and commentaries on the history of Polish towns. The project, managed in cooperation with the Head Office of State Archives, opens on 5 September in the town of Bolimów. The portal editorial team receives many home archive pictures from Bolimów citizens. One of them is presented here.

On February 7, NASK together with the Nobody’s Children Fundation organized for the second Safer Internet Day in Poland. This day is celebrated in the whole of Europe as a part of the European Commission’s Safer Internet Action Plan.

Beginnig of the second stage of social campaign “Child in the Network” – it has to draw the attention of adults to the dangerous resources children can find on the Internet. More: http://www.saferinternet.pl/en http://www.saferinternet.pl/en

The 10th anniversary of the CERT Polska Team operating at NASK. We celebrated it during the tenth, jubilee editon of the SECURE Conference.

During the gala ceremony organized together with this year’s seminar of “Świat Telekomunikacji”, NASK’s project “e-Świetokrzyskie – the building of an RF network” (developing a broadband Internet access system in the Świetokrzyskie Province) won a “Golden Antenna” in the category “product of the year – a stationary solution for business”. According to the bylaws of the “Golden Antenna” contest, NASK’s project ranked as one of the most innovative and economical telecommunications solutions launched over the last twelve months.

On 12th February NASK and the Nobody’s Children Foundation organized Safer Internet Day for the fourth time in Poland. On that occasion many local and national actions, such as SID competitions, initiatives at schools, e-learning course offer for elementary schools, inauguration of social campaign “STOP cyberbullying” and others, were celebrated by schools and institutions.

More info: www.saferinternet.pl/en

The SECURE 2008 Conference deemed issues relating to the protection of identity and building awareness of threats appearing in the internet, particularly in community portals and websites, especially important. Almost 200 persons participated in this year’s edition of the conference. They were representatives of the government administration, scientific and academic circles, as well as companies functioning in the most important sectors of the economy.

According to the surveys carried out by Agency GEMIUS 60 percent of the internet café customers are children. Therefore, the NASK has initiated campaign “Children-friendly cafes” within the framework of the SaferInternet.pl project. The campaign is addressed to owners of such facilities. Its aim is to increase safety of the youngest internet users and promotion of the cautious use of the internet.

CERT Poland, together with CERT Hungary and Internet Security Centre of the Gelsenkirchen University, carries out FISHA project within the framework of a European Commission programme. Its basic aim is development of a prototype of the EISAS (European Information Sharing and Alerting System) system, that is a Europe-wide system for the exchange and access to information on the computer safety and warnings against internet threats.

There are 370 archival documents from the Anjou dynasty period, kept in the Central Archive of Old Documents, available in the Polska.pl portal.

58 speakers, over 500 participants, guests from 26 countries. The Internet knows no boundaries, as the participants of the 3rd International Conference on „Keeping children and young people safe online” learned. The Conference was held on 29 and 30 September 2009. The event was organized by the Polish Center of the “Safer Internet” Program, established by the NASK and the Nobody’s Children Foundation. Klicksafe – a German project devoted to Internet safety, was also involved in the preparations for the Conference, organized within the framework of the European Commission’s “Safer Internet” program. The Orange Foundation was the event’s main partner.

The NASK opens Rakowiecka Data Center in a central location of Warsaw. It is a third facility in which the NASK offers space for rent together with accompanying services – the other two operate in the Warsaw districts of Kabaty and Ursus.

On 9 February 2010 whole Europe celebrated Safer Internet Day (SID). In Poland, it was organized by NASK and the Nobody's Children Foundation , forming the Polish Centre of the EU Programme “Safer Internet”. This year SID was dedicated to the protection of the privacy in the Internet with the motto „Think B4 U post!”. Local initiatives in the area of the online safety of the youngest net surfers have been organized all over the country. The most interesting of them will receive awards founded by our Partners.

NASK and ABW ( Internal Security Agency ) have won this year’s edition of the “Teraz Polska” ( Now Poland ) Contest in the “Innovation” category. The award has been granted for the ARAKIS-GOV detection and early warning system informing about telecommunications and IT threats in the state’s administration network.

Since 1 October 2010, pursuant to Act of 30 April 2010 on the Research Institutions (Journal of Laws No. 96, item. 618) and Act of 30 April 2010 “Introductory Provisions for Legislation Reforming the Science System”, the official name of NASK is “Naukowa i Akademicka Sieć Komputerowa – instytut badawczy” [“Research and Academic Computer Network – a Research Institute”]. The amendments to the legislation open new opportunities for NASK to expand its scientific activities and develop new research projects. We are committed to meeting these challenges.

Secure 2010 Conference Human error or sometimes sheer curiosity allow malware into our computers. It is often the case that we lose not only the hard drive resources, but money as well - says Lance Spitzner, world expert in Internet security, whose speech opened the 14th SECURE Conference devoted to network security, an event traditionally organized by NASK and CERT Polska, operating in the framework of NASK.

NASK and ABW ( Internal Security Agency ) have won this year’s edition of the “Teraz Polska” ( Now Poland ) Contest in the “Innovation” category. The award has been granted for the ARAKIS-GOV detection and early warning system informing about telecommunications and IT threats in the state’s administration network.

CERT Polska Report
Experts from CERT Polska, operating within NASK, received over 12 million incidents concerning Polish nets. The proliferation of the Zeus trojan, Stuxnet worm or attacks on Voice-over-IP services are the most serious threats that Internet users faced last year.

Congress of Young Internet Users
On the initiative of NASK it was set up the Congress of Young Internet Users – a platform of cooperation with pupils and teachers that aims to understand the educational needs and knowledge about on-line safety. At the first congress the participants discussed how to care of their own safety in Internet and also how to protect your computer against threats.

15th Science Picnic
NASK actively participated in the 15th Science Picnic organized by Polish Radio and the Copernicus Science Centre. During the Europe’s largest outdoor event dedicated to science, NASK provided Internet for picnic exhibitors and presented achievements in the field of biometrics.

New service Arakis.pl
NASK has prepared a new service for business clients that is based on Arakis system. Arakis.pl is unique early warning system reporting threats arising on the Internet. It makes analysis of trends in propagating the attacks in Polish networks.

20 years of Internet in Poland
NASK has played a significant role in connecting Poland to worldwide network. This year in August we have celebrated the 20th anniversary of this event. At the beginning, Internet was only for select group of society, today over 63% of households has an access to the network. Internet stepped suddenly into our life, and changed it in every aspect: social, economic and technological.

Dyżurnet.pl campaign
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Internet in Poland, Dyżurnet.pl, operating in the framework of NASK, has launched a new social campaign “I don’t accept, connect nor enter …”. The campaign is aiming at drawing the attention of Poles to the need of responding to illegal and dangerous content in Internet, especially materials related to child sexual abuse, racism and xenophobia content connected with hate speech.

Biometrics patent
The research concerning eye aliveness detection conducted by the Biometrics Laboratories in NASK and the Institute of Control and Computation Engineering of Warsaw University of Technology was ended in success – granting of a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The authors of the invention „Method of eye aliveness testing and device for eye aliveness testing” are the employees of the Biometrics Laboratories: prof. Andrzej Pacut, Adam Czajka and Marcin Chochowski.

5th International Conference „Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online”
During this year’s 5th International Conference “Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online” specialists from all of Europe discussed how to make the experience of young people using modern technology was positive and creative. The experts shared their knowledge of online identity management, privacy in social networking sites, issues related to plagiarism, and also educational strategies. The organizers of the conference were: Polish Safer Internet Center (formed by the Nobody’s Child Foundation and NASK) and klicksafe – German project for online safety. The main partner of the conference was Orange Foundation.

Conference „ Stay safe on-line” in Łomża
NASK in cooperation with the State College of Computer Science and Business Administration organized the conference titled “Stay safe on-line”. The conference was under the patronage of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. At the seminar the youngest participants gained knowledge how to surf in virtual world safely, and adults – how to react to illegal content on Internet and how to protect children against it.

15th Science Festival
For many years NASK has been participating in the Science Festival that aims at promoting science through interesting lectures, displays, films and exhibitions. This year NASK prepared three festival lessons on domains, network security and cyber crime.

Under the patronage of the President’s wife Anna Komorowska it has been launched the poster contest “We create safe Internet” directed to Polish young artists. They will have opportunity to illustrate how to ensure the safety of the youngest Internet users. The best works selected by Polish known artists will be on display in the Poster Museum in Warsaw. The contest organizers are NASK and advertising agency Adah Advertising.

Four parallel workshops, 38 speakers, over 200 participants – so just a few numbers describing the Secure 2011 Conference that has been held for the fifteenth time. From the beginning, the conference organizers are NASK and CERT Polska, operating in the framework of the institution. The conference was under the patronage of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Ministry of Interior and Administration.

Arakis.pl – unique early warning system reporting threats arising on the Internet – has been awarded the European Medal in the 22nd edition of the contest organized by Business Centre Club.