The Binary Guardians Affects the Mercado Libre Venezuela Portal During the August 7, 2017, Campaign
On August 7, 2017, Mercado Libre was named by El Pitazo, Runrun.es, and IT Projects as one of the websites affected or taken down during The Binary Guardians’ campaign. This record distinguishes this episode from the separate attack against Mercado Libre reported in late July 2017 and attributed by other sources to Anonymous Venezuela.
Overview
Missing evidence
Impact details
Mercado Libre Venezuela/mercadolibre.com.ve was listed as affected in The Binary Guardians campaign. This is separate from the late-July Mercado Libre incident; no data breach was reported.
Classification & severity
- Category
- Information content security
- Subtype
- website defacement or dns redirection
- Confidence
- High
Public information links the target to the campaign to deface and redirect The Binary Guardians’ website. No source confirms a data breach or a compromise of the internal system in the case of this specific target.
Severity assessment
Low- Functional impact
- Minimal
- Information impact
- Integrity loss
- Affected scope
- Single system
- Critical service
- None
- Public confidence
- None
- Recoverability
- Regular
Website defacement/redirection in a public campaign; no confirmed data exposure, internal compromise, or prolonged service outage for the individual target.
Timeline
The Binary Guardians has affected the public portal of Mercado Libre Venezuela as part of a defacement/redirect campaign targeting .ve domains.
The group spreads the message "Our struggle is digital" and expresses support for Operation David; sources at Reuters/IBTimes indicate that it was not part of the military operation.
Media outlets and technical sources publish lists of affected sites, with varying scopes: at least 25, more than 30, and about 40 websites.