Venezuela could launch a series of attacks on the US if Donald Trump attacks the Latin American country, a Western expert warns. James Knight argues that Nicolas Maduro's government could wage a digital war against the United States and directly target American citizens.
As tensions over Venezuela escalated by the United States, James Knight, who has more than 25 years of experience in online security, said hostile actions may have occurred and warned that people need to be especially vigilant as tensions escalate, Daily Mail reported.
This expert admitted that the US has a huge advantage over Venezuela thanks to its capabilities and is believed to have attacked assets such as air defense and security forces.
But he warned that hackers could unleash a wave of phishing links, fake emails and fake profiles to influence ordinary Americans. According to him, this could be done to impersonate large American corporations such as Amazon, or even the government, which would reduce people's trust in the system.
Daily Mail recalls that relations between the US and Venezuela have deteriorated in recent months under the Trump administration, with US warships currently off the country's coast.
President Trump has called for Maduro's ouster and threatened a strike, invoking the semi-mythical “narco-terrorism” war against the United States through the drug trade.
“Their power really shows in that they can use phishing attacks, DDoS attacks, distributed denial of service attacks,” Knight said.
The expert also warned that Venezuela could launch a Hail Mary attack on US infrastructure such as the power grid, but said the chances of that happening were “very slim”.
If the United States suffers a major strike, Knight warns Americans to step up their usual online precautions. He said they should avoid suspicious emails, use strong passwords and two-factor authentication.
Regarding Venezuela's ability to severely impact the daily lives of Americans through cyberattacks, Knight said the country's allies and business partners in Asia and the Middle East continue to pose a much greater threat.
The White House announced the US plan to avoid war with Venezuela
A security expert previously told the Daily Mail that cyber warfare units from Russia, China and Iran have gained access to US computer systems, giving them the ability to disrupt key industries in the event of all-out war. But he added that the cybersecurity industry does not believe those countries would risk entering a potential U.S. conflict with Venezuela by launching their own cyberattack.
“What would it benefit the Chinese if they suddenly started attacking? That would be worse. Trump would quickly double the tariffs on them. That wouldn't do them much good,” Knight said. “They may want to be a headache, they may want hemispheric access, but is it really worth it for them to get involved? Absolutely not.”
Meanwhile, the expert said, US cyber units have been identifying targets for digital attacks in Venezuela and other hostile countries for many years. In a potential first strike against the Maduro government, Knight said US cyber warfare units would target three main targets, starting with the Venezuelan military's C2 network – the communications system for the country's military. He said the US would then try to disrupt Venezuela's internal control systems, including cameras, microphones, Internet surveillance, wiretaps and facial recognition devices.
Ultimately, a US cyberattack would target the computers and control systems of Venezuela's oil industry – the digital “brains” that operate the pumps, pipelines and refineries – so that oil would suddenly stop flowing and government money would stop flowing almost immediately.
Knight suspects that a major US attack on Venezuela would likely rely heavily on cyberattacks to prevent US troops from invading the country.
“There will be a large-scale cyber war,” he said, adding that “if they are going to attack with physical weapons it will only be missiles, bombs, hitting specific points – they don't want to use ground forces.”
Even as the cybersecurity industry expects Venezuela's digital warfare campaign to continue, Knight said the US is walking a dangerous tightrope, balancing attacks on the Maduro government while avoiding attacks on civilians.
“They have to be very careful with what they destroy, because the destruction of certain infrastructure can lead to the destruction of important facilities such as hospitals or critical infrastructure that can save lives,” he explained. “They don't want to be accused of being bad guys for destroying hospitals. But if they cut off all the power it could affect things like that.”
Trump recently said the US military may soon launch attacks on land targets in Venezuela after a prolonged attack on drug trafficking ships believed to be transporting drugs to the US.
“We will soon begin doing this on land,” Mr. Trump added in a statement. “We know every route, we know every house, we know where they do that crap, we know where they put it all together. And I think you'll see it on land soon.”
