Distributed denial of service

Anonymous Claims Responsibility for Attack on the Venezuelan Network Information Center (NIC)

On August 18, 2024, hacktivist groups such as Anonymous and Cyber Hunters (also known as White Hunters) launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the Venezuelan Network Information Center (NIC.ve). The attack was part of the broader #OpVenezuela campaign, a coordinated cyberoffensive targeting the Venezuelan government’s infrastructure following the disputed presidential elections in July 2024. The DDoS attack caused the NIC.ve website to display a maintenance message, although it is unclear whether any data was compromised or how long the downtime lasted exactly.

Overview

Missing evidence

It is unclear whether any data was compromised or whether the outage was purely a DDoS attack.The exact duration of the downtime is unknown.No independent report or official statement was found that identifies NIC.ve as a confirmed DDoS target.Confirmation would require a notice from CONATEL/NIC.ve, a media report mentioning nic.ve, or an archived screenshot of a maintenance/outage notice dated August 18, 2024.

Impact details

White_Hunters/Anonymous have claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack against NIC.ve. There is broader coverage of Operation #OpVenezuela, but no independent source has been found that mentions NIC.ve as a confirmed target of the service disruption on August 18, 2024.

Classification & severity

Category
Availability
Subtype
Distributed denial of service
Confidence
Low

The available evidence indicates that this was a DDoS attack orchestrated by an actor against the mentioned target. No statement from the victim, no independent report on the service disruption, and no technical telemetry data corresponding to this specific target and date have been found.

Severity assessment

Low
Information impact
None
Affected scope
Organization-wide
Critical service
Potential
Public confidence
Limited

The specific impact on the target has not been independently confirmed; the evidence consists of a report of a DDoS attack on social media by an actor, but the broader context of the campaign is not sufficient to validate this row.

Timeline

Claim

Anonymous listed the Venezuelan Network Information Center (NIC) as an alleged victim.

Evidence & sources

1 source