SwichSmoke

SwichSmoke Leaks CANTV User Data and Movilnet Messages (Operation Venezuela)

In July 2011, an attacker identifying himself as SwichSmoke claimed to have compromised CANTV, Venezuela’s largest state-owned telecommunications company, and leaked data on Pastebin under the hashtags #OpCantv and “Operation Venezuela.” According to the attacker’s own post, the leak (with access obtained starting July 25) included a user database containing names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords, national ID numbers, PINs, and credit card numbers, part of CANTV’s proxy server, and some text messages from its mobile subsidiary, Movilnet. The incident was reported on July 29, 2011, by the data breach tracker databreaches.net and was part of a broader SwichSmoke campaign targeting Venezuelan government entities. There is no public record of an official acknowledgment by CANTV.