Unidentified individual defaces the facades of Venezuelan embassies housed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
On February 7, 2019, Venezuelan embassy websites hosted on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/MPPRE’s infrastructure published false statements of support for Juan Guaidó. Sources cite eleven affected countries, using phrases such as “at least ten” or “more than ten”: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Russia, Canada, Uruguay, Guatemala, Italy, Egypt, and Costa Rica. The evidence points to a shared compromise of the MPPRE’s infrastructure, not to eleven separate intrusions targeting different embassies. No credible claim of responsibility from a specific actor was found.
Overview
Missing evidence
Impact details
At least ten websites belonging to the Venezuelan embassy displayed fake statements in support of Guaidó, and online publishing was suspended while security was restored. No data breach was reported.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Information content security
- Subtype
- website defacement
- Confidence
- High
Several complaints and a response document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs point to the publication of false statements on embassy websites hosted on the MPPRE’s shared infrastructure.
Severity assessment
Medium- Functional impact
- Degraded (non-critical)
- Information impact
- Integrity loss
- Affected scope
- Multiple systems
- Critical service
- Potential
- Public confidence
- Moderate
- Recoverability
- Supplemented
A multi-vector compromise of the diplomatic web infrastructure has been confirmed; no data breaches or disruptions to essential diplomatic services have been reported.
Timeline
The websites of at least ten Venezuelan embassies were defaced; reports point to an attack on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MPPRE) server that hosts the diplomatic websites.
On the compromised pages, fake statements attributed to the ambassadors are published, recognizing Juan Guaidó as interim president and calling for a transition and humanitarian aid.
Diplomatic missions remove the posts within minutes, denounce the hack on social media, and reaffirm their loyalty to Nicolás Maduro; the Foreign Ministry describes it as an international cybercrime.