Such as the struggle of the Venezuelan economy, some residents turn to a lucrative gig: Cybercrime – Herald Journalism 24

Cybercrime thrives in Venezuela as the deepening economic and political crisis in the country drive thousands of underground criminal world, according to a report released Thursday by IntSights, a companys global threat intelligence.

IntSights analysts discovered a large scale and sophisticated attempts to steal personal information from people in Latin America who worked for various companies, such as banks and retailers, and then sell the information online or use them to gather more data. The hackers based in Venezuela and neighboring countries, such as Colombia, Venezuela where many refugees have settled.

operation collection of this information is very beneficial for the people of Venezuela as sold for cryptocurrency like bitcoin, welcome alternative to his own countrys currency, which has withstood the rapid inflation.

And they are not subtle about it. specific information about the operation, as the hackers, in which they are located and a phone number even hackers are surprisingly easy to find, according to Amal Wright, an analyst at IntSights. Usually, experienced hackers operating in countries such as Russia, China and Vietnam hide by taking alternate identities and profiles for discarding.

They did not seem too worried about hiding, said Wright. I think its because they do not feel the law enforcement will do anything.

Venezuelas hyperinflation has caused deterioration of the national currency and, in turn, many Venezuelans have turned to cryptocurrencies. The International Monetary Fund said inflation of the Venezuelan bolivar, the countrys currency, is expected to reach staggering 200,000 percent this year. Cup of coffee cost 150 bolivars in November 2018 now costs 18,000 bolivars, according to Bloomberg.

Venezuela was once one of the richest countries in Latin America, with the largest oil reserves in the world and the vast gold deposits. But decades of corruption and mismanagement under the Socialist government has caused the economy to fall. In the past year, the protests have turned deadly after a crackdown by the government of President Nicols Maduro. The country has also experienced sizeable outages.

Venezuela-based cybercrime efforts span a wide range of digital common crimes including large scale email phishing attempts and malware campaigns. sensitive information collected through the successful hacks are then sold in various public websites and in the dark web.

This report indicates the victim does not receive a lot of cooperation from the government when they file a complaint because of economic and political turmoil in the country. As a result, local law enforcement turned a blind eye.

Censorship in Venezuela has led hackers to openly use social media. Government blocks many sites such as CNN and El Nacional, a popular national newspaper. Even walkie-talkie zello application, which is very popular among the people of Venezuela during the protests, has been blocked. People have turned to virtual private networks (VPNs), which sensors help sidestep the internet, and the Tor browser, free software and open source enables anonymous communication. But even VPNs and Tor have been banned by the Venezuelan state-owned Internet provider, CANTV.(Source)

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Such as the struggle of the Venezuelan economy, some residents turn to a lucrative gig: Cybercrime - Herald Journalism 24