President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that the United States used cyberattacks or other technical means to knock out electricity in Caracas during strikes on the Venezuelan capital that led to the capture of the country's President Nicolas Maduro.
President Donald Trump suggested on Saturday that the United States used cyberattacks or other technical means to knock out electricity in Caracas during strikes on the Venezuelan capital that led to the capture of the country's President Nicolas Maduro.
As Politico reports , such operations are usually highly classified, and the United States is considered one of the most advanced countries in cyberspace in the world.
“It was dark, the lights in Caracas were basically turned off due to some of our knowledge, it was dark, and it was deadly,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, where he detailed the operation.
Gen. Dan Kane, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the same press conference that U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Space Command and combatant commands “have begun to put in place various effects” to “create a path” for the American troops who flew into the country early Saturday morning. Kane did not specify what those “effects” meant.
Representatives from the White House, Cyber Command and Space Command did not respond to requests for comment on cyber operations in Venezuela.
Internet monitoring group NetBlocks reported a loss of internet connectivity in Caracas during a power outage early Saturday morning. Alp Toker, founder of NetBlocks, said in an email Saturday that while cyberattacks contributed to the outages, “they were targeted and did not affect the wider network space.”
Saturday's attack was the latest in a series of cyberattacks on Venezuelan infrastructure in recent weeks. Venezuela's national oil and gas company PDVSA, or Petróleos de Venezuela, SA, last month accused the U.S. government of carrying out a cyberattack that caused delays across the country. The Trump administration has not commented publicly on whether the U.S. was involved in the attack. PDVSA said its facilities were not affected in Saturday's attack.
Recall that the US Department of Justice has indicted a Ukrainian woman and is demanding 27 years in prison in the US for her involvement in Russian cyberattacks on American critical infrastructure.
