[2] The ABW is responsible for analyzing, reporting and preventing threats to Poland's internal security, including terrorism, foreign espionage, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, organized crime, corruption and economic coercion.

[3] Its powers include arresting individuals, conducting searches and investigations, and combating terrorism with a specialized armed anti-terrorist force.

[5]: 8  The ABW works closely with other security apparatuses in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations to pool data, including the Agencja Wywiadu, the Policja, the Straż Graniczna and the Biuro Ochrony Rządu.

[7] The ABW maintains offices in nearly all of Poland's major cities, including Białystok, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Lublin, Łódź, Olsztyn, Opole, Poznań, Radom, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Warsaw, Wrocław and Zielona Góra.

Additionally, the ABW maintains international liaison offices within Polish diplomatic missions in Berlin, Brussels, Kyiv, London, Moscow and Prague.

[5]: 17 In the aftermath of the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash, killing President Lech Kaczyński and other senior members of the armed forces and government, members of the Law and Justice party alleged that leaked memos showed the agency had spied on the late president and First Lady Maria Kaczyńska during a state visit to Georgia in 2008.

[10] In response to opposition allegations of stifling free speech, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated afterward that the agency was a victim of the penal code's legal vagueness.

[13] Idzik claims that the ABW were unwilling to investigate Dadak, leading him to say: "I was the chief of the biggest Polish defense company and somebody wheedled money.

[14] The ABW used physical force against the publication's editor-in-chief Sylwester Latkowski in an attempt to illegally seize his laptop computer, after he refused to give it away without court warrant.