OpVenezuela 2014: Anonymous and allies claim responsibility for attacks on official Venezuelan websites
Between February 13 and 17, 2014, actors associated with Anonymous, South American chapters, and LulzSec claimed responsibility for attacks against official Venezuelan websites during #OpVenezuela. The Venezuelan government stated that 61 official websites were attacked over a 48-hour period, involving DDoS attacks, defacements, and content deletion. Public sources name some domains or institutions, but do not allow the figure of 61 websites to be equated with 61 verified incidents. The takeover of the @PartidoPSUV account by LulzSecPeru was classified as a separate incident because it involved a specific victim, technical method, and actor.
Impact details
Campaign-level reports describe 61 official Venezuelan websites attacked over a 48-hour period, with frequent DDoS attacks and defacement, as well as official reports of data extraction and unauthorized transactions. The specific takeover of the PSUV’s Twitter account is analyzed separately and is not counted as part of the impact of this report.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Information content security
- Subtype
- multi site government web attacks
- Confidence
- High
Official and media reports describe a campaign of attacks against numerous Venezuelan government websites, including DDoS attacks, defacement, data exfiltration, and unauthorized transactions. The takeover of the PSUV’s Twitter account is considered a separate incident.
Severity assessment
Medium- Functional impact
- Degraded (critical)
- Information impact
- Government-sensitive
- Affected scope
- Organization-wide
- Critical service
- Potential
- Public confidence
- Moderate
- Recoverability
- Regular
Official reports and media coverage at the campaign level indicate that many government websites have been targeted by attacks, including DDoS attacks, defacement, and alleged data extraction; evidence at the individual website level remains aggregated.
Timeline
Launch of the #OpVenezuela campaign: Hacktivists from Anonymous, LulzSec, and LulzSecPeru defaced, took down (DDoS), and deleted content from Venezuelan government and military websites following the deaths of protesters in Caracas.
LulzSecPeru takes control of the PSUV's official Twitter account (@PartidoPSUV) and posts hostile messages, including "Don't mess with the best—hacked by @LulzSecPeru."
The Venezuelan government, through Minister Manuel Fernández, denounced the attack on 61 official websites within 48 hours and described it as a "cyberwar."
Authorities regain control of the PSUV’s Twitter account; outages and defacements of official websites continue to be reported.