Caracas, August 17 (RHC)-- The Minister of Science and Technology of Venezuela, Gabriela Jiménez, denounced that computer attacks on the cyber systems of this nation have increased and stated that 106 institutions and media are affected.

In statements to local media, the official said that the attacks increased after the meeting of the National Defense Council and the State Council, led last Monday by the president of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro.

Gabriela Jimenez pointed out that most of these attacks are coming from the United States, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and recently France.  The science and technology minister said that the attackers “have stolen information from portals.  Recently, the payroll of (state airline) Conviasa was racked published."

She said that all of this is intended to generate terror and foster uncertainty and fear when the perpetrators of cyber-attacks “publish payrolls of users, military, officials…”.

During her participation in the podcast “Here and Now”, the vice president of Science, Technology, Education and Health explained that the attacks are differentiated so that they affect institutions and thus steal vital information from the Republic.

When addressing the types of attacks, it was abundantly clear that they are of various types and among them stands out the so-called DNS, in order to collapse the servers of the Venezuelan state, as happened with the web portal of the National Electoral Council (CNE) on July 28th.

When discussing how to defend the country from future aggressions of this nature, she said: “It is essential that we create a technological infrastructure that guarantees the well-being of the people, confidentiality of data.  There are digital rights of the Venezuelans that we have to ensure.  This uncertainty generated by the fascist opposition has to do with an attempt of cyber-technological coup d’état”, he stressed.

In statements to other media outlets, Gabriela Jiménez emphasized the use of these attacks, moreover, to harm the Venezuelan economy, which is experiencing solid growth at the regional level, 5 percent so far, according to estimates of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

She said that the country has faced “attacks by more than 30 million bots on the technological infrastructure that ensures that internet links reach Venezuela. The main target was the telecommunications company, CANTV”, he said.