According to a specialist, Venezuela might swiftly retaliate against the United States following the clandestine capture of Nicolas Maduro and his spouse by Delta Force operatives.
The South American country could potentially launch a series of cyber assaults targeting the US and its citizens, as suggested by James Knight from DigitalWarfare.com.
In an interview with the Daily Mail last month, in the aftermath of US airstrikes on suspected drug trafficking vessels near Venezuela, Knight advised heightened vigilance among the public.
While acknowledging America’s superior cyberwarfare resources, Knight cautioned that Venezuelan hackers could initiate widespread phishing schemes, send out deceptive emails, and create fraudulent online profiles to disrupt the lives of average Americans.
Such tactics might involve mimicking major US companies like Amazon or even federal entities such as the IRS, thereby eroding public trust in these institutions.
The nighttime operation saw America’s elite Delta Force extracting Maduro and his wife from their residence, having pinpointed their location through CIA intelligence gathered over recent days.
The far-left leader, who will now stand trial in New York City on drugs and weapons charges, was taken in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Donald Trump said the Maduros have been taken to the USS Iwo Jima assault ship and they will later be transported to Manhattan.
A military vehicle destroyed by Saturday’s strikes in Venezuela is seen burned-out as dawn breaks in Caracas on Saturday morning
A bus with its windows blown out is seen in Caracas in the early hours of Saturday. Venezuela’s attorney general said ‘innocent people’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the strikes but did not offer further details or the number of people injured or killed
Knight said any attack in the digital world would look much different than potential attacks coming from major cyber units in China or Russia.
He said: ‘Their strengths really come in the form of maybe doing some phishing, doing some DDoS, distributed denial-of-service attacks.’
He also warned Venezuela could launch a ‘Hail Mary’ attack against American infrastructure, such as power grids, but called the odds ‘very light.’
Knight recommended Americans should step up their normal online precautions. He said they should avoid suspicious emails and maintain strong passwords.
In terms of Venezuela’s ability to seriously impact the lives of everyday Americans through cyber attacks, Knight said the country’s allies and business partners in Asia and the Middle East are still a much more ominous threat.
The security expert told the Daily Mail cyberwarfare units from Russia, China, and Iran already had access to US computer systems, giving them the ability to disrupt key industries in the event of all-out war.
But he added the cybersecurity industry does not believe these nations would risk entering a potential US conflict with Venezuela by carrying out their own cyberattack.
An explosion rocks Caracas in the early hours of Saturday morning during a US military operation which resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro (pictured) and President Trump spoke by phone last month as tensions between the two countries mounted
US forces on November 6 struck an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean, killing three people, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said
‘What would be a benefit of the Chinese if they suddenly started attacking? It would be worse.
‘Trump would double the tariffs on them very quickly. It just doesn’t benefit them that much,’ Knight said.
‘They like having access, they like being able to use the drug networks to put fentanyl into America.
‘They might like to be a thorn in the side, they might like to have access to the hemisphere, but is it really worth their getting involved? Definitely not.’
The expert added that US cyber units have been mapping out targets to strike digitally in Venezuela and other hostile nations for years.
Trump hailed the operation to snatch Maduro as ‘brilliant’ during a brief interview with the New York Times on Saturday morning.
The president later called into Fox News’s breakfast show Fox & Friends, excitedly telling its hosts: ‘I mean, I watched it literally l like I was watching a television show.
‘If you would’ve seen the speed, the violence – it was an amazing thing.’
Explosions were seen ripping across Caracas during the daring raid, with Venezuelan AG Tarek Saab insisting ‘innocents’ had been ‘mortally wounded’ by the operation.
Two days before the raid, Maduro issued a plea for peace to the US, amid reports he had begun sleeping in a different place every night in a bid to avoid capture.
Speaking to a Spanish journalist, Maduro said: ‘The American people should know they have a friendly, peaceful people here, and a friendly government as well.
‘They should know that our message is very clear: ‘Not War. Yes Peace’.’
During the same interview, Maduro said he’d be willing to work with the US to curtail drug trafficking.
Trump claims Maduro is the head of a narcotics cartel which has flooded the United States with illegal substances.
Speaking to The New York Times at 4:30am on Saturday morning, nine minutes after announcing the raid on his TruthSocial website, Trump said: ‘A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people.
‘It was a brilliant operation, actually.’ Asked if he had consulted Congress prior to authorizing the strike, Trump said: ‘We’ll discuss that.’
Maduro is due to stand trial in Manhattan and will likely be housed in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn – the same federal facility that currently houses alleged United HealthCare CEO murderer Luigi Mangione.
American forces do not appear to have encountered much resistance from the Venezuelan military, despite Maduro claiming he was ready for any attack.
