The Minister for Science and Technology, Gabriela Jiménez, reported that to date 126 State technological platforms have suffered cyberattacks, which has generated, for example, an impact on the CNE system.
“Since July 28, we have had an unprecedented attack on the State’s technological platforms, unprecedented in terms of the sophistication of the technologies, the dimensions and the volume,” he denounced during the 54th broadcast of the program Con Maduro +.
He also stated that on Thursday and Friday they attempted to breach the platform of the National Admission System of the Ministry of Higher Education (SNI) to affect the allocation of places to more than 360 thousand high school graduates in the Republic.
“Also on Thursday and Friday there were attacks on the Federal Government Council and the Caracas Stock Exchange. The attacks have targeted sensitive State structures and also public and private services. They seek to affect everyday life,” he said.
Jiménez explained that the cyber attacks are planned and use important technological tools, and have affected internet services throughout the Republic.
30 million attacks per minute
He also showed slides listing cyberattacks against internet connections, provided by the US company that provides the service to the state-owned CANTV.
“The Columbus company itself communicates with CANTV and tells them that they have an increase in traffic that worries them because it is not common,” he specified.
The head of Science and Technology said that the IP tracking of the attacks comes from the United States, Mexico, France and Switzerland, and that they are carried out from bot farms. “There are thousands of them, to the point that all these international link networks reported 30 million attacks per minute,” she added.
He added that three companies that provide international services for CANTV links were affected on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. “They have falsified our IP links, duplicated the links, misconfigured the portals; in addition to this, they have hijacked information from our portals; the Conviasa payroll, for example, was published on social networks,” he revealed.
Free software is the solution
In response to President Nicolás Maduro’s question about “how to protect the country’s important data” from cyberattacks, Minister Jiménez commented on the need to create our own free software platforms “that allow us to protect ourselves from these viruses.”
He said there is a structure of at least 200 professionals dedicated to working on this issue, who are assisted by “international cooperation.”
Finally, Gabriela Jiménez reported that the Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky reported that Venezuela was the most attacked country in South America in the first week of August and the last week of July.
