Hack of the social media accounts of the Venezuelan National Assembly and Capitolio TV
On January 15, 2018, the Twitter and Instagram accounts and the YouTube channel of the Venezuelan National Assembly, as well as its parliamentary channel Capitolio TV, were compromised and fell out of the Assembly’s control. The hijacking of the accounts prevented the live broadcast of legislative sessions, affecting some 121,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 11,000 Twitter followers. The media outlet’s management announced that they would provide updates on alternative channels while resolving the issue. No specific perpetrator was publicly identified; the incident occurred amid ongoing pressure against the opposition-controlled Parliament.
Impact details
The official social media accounts of the National Assembly/Capitolio TV were hacked, disrupting the live broadcast of parliamentary sessions to approximately 121,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 11,000 Twitter followers. No data breach has been reported.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Intrusions
- Subtype
- Unprivileged account compromise
- Confidence
- High
Various media outlets and civil society organizations are reporting that official Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts have been compromised.
Severity assessment
Medium- Functional impact
- Degraded (non-critical)
- Information impact
- Integrity loss
- Affected scope
- Multiple users
- Critical service
- Potential
- Public confidence
- Limited
- Recoverability
- Supplemented
It has been confirmed that one of the institution’s social media accounts was compromised, affecting public legislative communications; however, no data breach has been confirmed.
Timeline
The Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube accounts of the National Assembly and Capitolio TV are hacked and fall out of Parliament’s control.
The hack prevented the live streaming of legislative sessions, affecting some 121,000 YouTube subscribers and more than 11,000 Twitter followers.
The National Assembly / Capitolio TV publicly denounces the hack and announces that it will broadcast on alternative channels while the problem is being resolved.