Hacking of the Transparencia Venezuela website, signed 'Mister Spy Bot V3'
On June 29, 2018, at approximately 2:00 a.m., the website of the Venezuelan organization Transparencia Venezuela suffered a defacement attack. The attackers altered a press release from the civil society organization Alianza por la Libertad de Expresión titled “Venezuela: Information on Probation” (published on June 27, 2018), deleting its content and leaving the signature “Mister Spy Bot V3.” According to Front Line Defenders, the attack did not affect general access to the organization’s website and was the fourth cyberattack against Transparencia Venezuela in less than a year.
Impact details
A page or press release on Transparencia Venezuela was altered and its content deleted, with the signature “Mister Spy Bot V3.” General access to the website was not affected, and no data breach was reported.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Information content security
- Subtype
- website defacement
- Confidence
- High
Front Line Defenders documents the defacement of a webpage and the removal of content on Transparencia Venezuela.
Severity assessment
Low- Functional impact
- Minimal
- Information impact
- Integrity loss
- Affected scope
- Organization-wide
- Critical service
- None
- Public confidence
- Limited
- Recoverability
- Regular
Incident involving media/civil society website availability or content integrity; no confirmed data exposure or critical service interruption.
Timeline
Transparencia Venezuela publishes the Alliance for Freedom of Expression’s statement titled “Venezuela: Information on Probation.”
Around 2:00 a.m., attackers tampered with the press release, deleted its content, and left the signature “Mister Spy Bot V3” (defacement). This is the fourth cyberattack against the organization in less than a year.
Front Line Defenders documents the incident as part of a pattern of cyberattacks against Transparencia Venezuela.