Chavismo 2.0: The desperate battle for Twitter
(Getty Images)
By CASTO OCANDO
Channel: International Politics
In the desperate struggle of supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to protect their president’s tarnished image, it seems as though laws and regulations, including phone, email and twitter account privacy, no longer apply to him.
In the latest example of the supporters’ relentless lawlessness, an anonymous group of self-proclaimed “chavist” hackers, operating under the name N33, have illegally taken over several private e-mail and twitter accounts of public figures in Venezuela, all of whom have been critical of the government.
As in the United States, hacking and tapping has been outlawed in Venezuela. The opposition has criticized Chavez’s government for not acting against a clear violation of private telecommunications regulations by pro-government hackers.
Openly, N33 hackers have been claiming all the attacks so far against journalists, military analysts and community activists.
“We will continue in the trenches 2.0 of the War 4G (Four Generation) which has already started. No one will stop us in the effort to put up and take revenge on anyone who attacks the disease of the President and the solemnity of the institutions,” the hackers said in a recent statement.
In the most remarkable case so far, N33 took control of the personal twitter account of journalist Berenice Gomez, known as the “La Bicha”. Her account, @Labichaoficial, had more than 190,000 followers.
After stealing her email account, the hacker called, threatening to publish the entire contents of her account, including confidential sources and information.
Many others have been victimized as well. Journalist Pacheco Ibeyise, writer and screenwriter Leonardo Padrón, commentator Eduardo Semtei.
“I was hacked because of saying what I think!” complained Padrón in a photo message released in a new Twitter account he was forced to open.
Padrón, together with Gomez, last Monday denounced the attacks before the Venezuelan judicial police. However, they don’t expect any crackdown on the hackers any time soon.
The latest victim was military analyst Rocío San Miguel, who chairs Control Ciudadano, a non-governmental organization that monitors the military in Venezuela. Through her account @rociosanmiguel, the specialist constantly published reports on the military situation. “The hacking is a plan of state terrorism,” San Miguel said in an interview.
So far, Twitter has not taken an official position on the attacks against users in Venezuela. A questionnaire sent by Univision on Wednesday to the site’s headquarters in San Francisco was not returned.
A FBI source told me that as of now there is no reason to open a federal investigation into the cases; but this could change if U.S. servers or U.S. citizens or residents accounts began to be hacked.
“Hacking is a federal crime, and these crimes will be prosecuted to its ultimate consequences, no matter where the perpetrators work from,” the federal source told me.
Cuban-Venezuelan actress Maria Conchita Alonso has contributed to the controversy by identifying 4 accounts linked to the hackers, calling for the accounts to be isolated and blocked. The accounts listed by Alonso are: @cainsupremo, @contraofensiva, @sentenciador y @diarrea2punto0.
By the way, the likely hackers’ gang leader, @cainsupremo, has issued threats against other twitter users such as former Globovision executive director @albertoravell, who has more than 400,000 followers, and myself, @cocando.
Experts have joined the discussions generated by the attacks, by recommending users to add more layers of security to avoid being hacked. Among them, to link twitter accounts to a Gmail account, with a double verification process; create “unbeatable” passwords with more than 19 characters that include letters, numbers and symbols, and to use software that provides anonymous identity (IP) that can prevent hackers from gaining access to personal computers.
The twitter hacking phenomenon is not a new trend, there have been many high profile individuals who have had their accounts hacked in the past. Among the celebrities whose accounts have been hacked this year: President Barack Obama (@barackobama) and pop star Britney Spears (@britneyspears).
