Cyber strikes during Maduro’s capture substantiated

U.S. officials were reported by The New York Times to have confirmed the deployment of cyber intrusions to cut power and disrupt air defense radars in Venezuela's capital of Caracas in the lead-up to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as part of Operation Absolute Resolve, after only being hinted at by President Donald Trump, according to SecurityWeek.

While hackers working for the U.S. were noted by the unnamed officials to have restored electricity in Caracas just a few minutes after the attack, other neighborhoods in the vicinity of the military base where Maduro was extracted had no power for up to three days, reported the NYT. Such details about the U.S.'s operation in Venezuela follow a report from British defense and security think tank Royal United Services Institute detailing that the U.S. may have used both cyberattacks and kinetic tools, such as graphite bombs and jamming, to compromise Venezuela's power grid, which has long been vulnerable to physical threats due to inadequate maintenance.