Venezuela is the Victim of a Cyber Coup: Ambassador Perez
Ambassador Joaquin Perez, Aug. 9, 2024. PHoto: X/ @CarlosS67913525
August 10, 2024 Hour: 1:42 pm
Since July 28, Venezuela has been the victim of over 30 million cyberattacks per minute, which affect all government portals.
On Friday, Joaquin Perez, the Deputy Ambassador of Venezuela to the United Nations, participated in the United Nations Convention on Cybercrime meeting held in New York.
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The Bolivarian diplomat denounced that Venezuela is being subjected to a cyber coup d’état orchestrated by transnational far-right powerful actors who control major media outlets and social networks.
“The meeting represents a privileged opportunity for this organization to take concrete steps toward ending the perpetration of cyber coups like the one currently underway in our country,” he said, referring to the media attacks against Venezuela since the presidential elections on July 28, when President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected for the 2025-2031 term.
“Since then, Venezuela has been the victim of over 30 million cyberattacks per minute, followed by massive attacks on all government portals,” Ambassador Perez recalled, explaining that the cyberattack is part of a political destabilization operation which was initially aimed at creating an information blackout on election day, thereby generating uncertainty inside and outside Venezuela.
“The magnitude of this new aggression against Venezuela, which includes the malicious use of ICTs, highlights the importance of this Convention and how these so-called cybercrimes are being criminally used to advance disinformation campaigns; to curtail the right to inform and be informed; to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states, including their electoral processes; and to foster chaos, anxiety, and violent extremism leading to terrorism,” pointed out the Bolivarian ambassador.
Perez welcomed the inclusion in the UN Convention of explicit language on the criminalization of attacks against the vital infrastructure of states, noting that Venezuela’s electrical, energy, gas, and oil infrastructures have been the target of repeated cyberattacks in recent years.
On Saturday, independent cyber researcher Kenny Ossa presented data from a report by the U.S.-based company NetScout that confirms what Venezuelan authorities have said.
“Between July 28 and 29, Venezuela experienced one of the largest cyberattacks in the history of the Internet. There was an oversaturated traffic of between 685Gbs and 700Gbs towards our country,” he said.
teleSUR/JF Sources: CTV – teleSUR
