Description: Cyberattack Paralyzes Venezuela’s Oil Giant PDVSA, Forcing Manual Operations A December 15 cyberattack on Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, *Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)*, has crippled its digital infrastructure, forcing employees to rely on phone calls, handwritten reports, and personal messaging apps to maintain operations. The attack disrupted critical systems, including the *SCADA* platform used to manage refineries, pipelines, and compression plants as well as *SAP* software, which handles accounting, payments, and production data. With internal email and corporate portals offline, employees in key departments spanning Caracas, Barinas, Puerto La Cruz, and El Tigre have turned to *WhatsApp, Telegram, and Gmail* for communication. The outage has delayed payments to contractors and workers, while retirees report difficulties accessing pension deposits, with some required to submit personal data in person for manual processing. The attack’s origin remains unclear, with no group or nation including the U.S., which has imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector claiming responsibility. The incident underscores the vulnerability of PDVSA’s aging technological infrastructure, weakened by years of underinvestment, corruption, and U.S. restrictions on system upgrades. As of late January, the company had yet to fully restore its digital operations.

Description: Cyberattack Disrupts Venezuela’s PDVSA, Delaying Oil Operations Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, *Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)*, is grappling with a prolonged cyberattack that has crippled critical administrative systems since early Saturday. The breach targeted networks managing export and import data at the country’s primary crude terminal, *Jose*, leaving key operations offline as of Monday. According to internal sources, PDVSA instructed employees to shut down computers, disconnect external hardware, and disable WiFi and Starlink connections following the attack. Security at company facilities was also heightened. An internal memo warned staff against restarting devices without authorization, citing concerns over potential data compromise. In a statement, PDVSA described the incident as a “sabotage attempt” that it claimed to have neutralized, asserting that oil production remained unaffected. However, the outage has forced contingency measures, delaying scheduled loadings and disrupting operations. The attack occurs amid heightened geopolitical tensions. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly accused the U.S. of orchestrating cyberattacks, including a prior hack allegedly originating from Macedonia that disrupted last year’s election results. The U.S. has denied direct involvement but has taken aggressive actions against Venezuela, including seizing a sanctioned oil tanker last week and authorizing covert CIA operations in October to counter drug trafficking and illegal migration. PDVSA’s vulnerability has been exacerbated by years of deferred maintenance and the loss of critical software licenses due to U.S. sanctions, which barred dealings with American tech providers. While the company has faced previous cyber incidents, this disruption is reportedly the most prolonged to date. The incident underscores the growing intersection of cyber threats and energy infrastructure, particularly in regions facing geopolitical and economic instability.

Description: Venezuela’s PDVSA Hit by Ransomware Attack Amid Escalating U.S. Tensions Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, suffered a ransomware attack last week, disrupting administrative systems and halting oil cargo deliveries, though production and refining operations remained unaffected. The company blamed the cyberattack on "foreign interests," specifically alleging U.S. involvement in coordination with domestic entities, accusing Washington of attempting to undermine Venezuela’s sovereign energy sector. The attack, which PDVSA claimed to have recovered from, forced workers to rely on manual record-keeping as systems remained offline. Multiple sources confirmed that administrative networks were still down days later, leading to the suspension of loading instructions for oil exports. At least four very large crude carriers (VLCCs) scheduled to load crude at Venezuelan ports reversed course, while a Benin-flagged tanker carrying 300,000 barrels of Russian naphtha for PDVSA also diverted to Europe without discharging its cargo. Despite the disruptions, some tankers including those chartered by Chevron under a U.S. sanctions exemption continued sailing to the U.S. Others departed in "dark mode," navigating with their tracking systems disabled. Venezuela’s oil exports averaged 952,000 barrels per day last month, according to shipping data, though the cyberattack and recent U.S. enforcement actions have added pressure. The incident follows the U.S. Coast Guard’s seizure of a VLCC carrying 1.85 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, the first such interception since sanctions were imposed in 2019. Tensions between Caracas and Washington have intensified, with Venezuela accusing the U.S. of seeking regime change to control its oil reserves. The U.S. State Department has not commented on the cyberattack allegations. PDVSA ordered employees to disconnect from corporate systems and restricted access for non-essential workers, while a shipper involved in Venezuelan oil deals confirmed that export operations remained suspended. The attack’s impact extended to Cuba, which relies on Venezuelan oil and is already facing severe power shortages.

Description: In December 2002, during a general strike in Venezuela, a port facility operated by PDVSA (Venezuela’s state-owned oil company) was targeted in a deliberate cyber attack. The attacker, likely an insider (possibly an employee involved in the strike), remotely accessed the SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system controlling the port’s operations. The attacker erased all PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) programs, crippling the facility’s ability to load oil tankers. The sabotage lasted eight hours, causing Venezuela’s national oil production to plummet from 3 million barrels per day (BPD) to just 300,000 BPD a 90% reduction.The attack directly disrupted Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy, which relied heavily on exports. The temporary shutdown of the port facility contributed to broader economic instability during the strike, exacerbating fuel shortages and financial losses. While no physical damage or loss of life occurred, the targeted disruption of critical infrastructure a key sector for the nation’s revenue demonstrated the vulnerability of industrial control systems to cyber sabotage. The incident highlighted how cyber attacks on energy infrastructure could be weaponized for political or economic coercion, with cascading effects on national production and global oil markets.