Press Release: Insights into Venezuela’s Digital Dictatorship
DeepINTEL publishes information about government surveillance in South America
Vienna (pts011/07.01.2026/09:15)–At the recent DeepINTEL Security Intelligence Conference, security expert Chris Kubecka gave a presentation on Venezuela’s digital surveillance dictatorship. Considering the current situation and at the request of the speaker, parts of the content are now being made publicly available. The aim is to strengthen knowledge about digital defense. In addition, the results of the research serve as a warning against the naïve use of digital platforms.
Dictatorship as a Case Study
Kubecka’s lecture, entitled ‘That Time I Hacked Venezuela: Digital Sabotage Against Authoritarianism,’ describes in detail technical, evidence-based findings on how authoritarian regimes use Western technology platforms, digital infrastructure and data analysis as weapons to monitor, persecute and oppress the civilian population. Venezuela serves as the primary case study here. The methods used can easily be transferred to other countries.
The research findings presented in the talk are based on collaboration with the White Lotus Security Research Team, a group of ethical hackers who have supported both the collection of information and targeted operational interventions in digital systems used for political repression in Venezuela. These measures were aimed at disrupting or neutralizing mechanisms that enable political kidnappings, abductions, and coordination between government agencies and criminal networks, with a focus on the safety of the civilian population and the securing of evidence.
DeepINTEL outlined the most important aspects of digital control by the Venezuelan authorities. The misuse of commercial platforms, including app ecosystems, analytics frameworks, and cloud infrastructures, to identify protesters and political opponents is a cornerstone of surveillance. The technical tracking of surveillance and control systems across borders, including infrastructure connections via Panama and global networks, serves to identify activists and citizens who act against the government.
The exposure of systems for tracking prisoners and mechanisms for monitoring protests embedded in civilian applications serves as another important radar for effectively guiding government responses. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and open source intelligence (OSINT) has enabled the documentation, attribution, and disruption of digital repression by state actors in Venezuela.
IT Security and Geopolitics
Chris Kubecka wants to use the content presented to point out that authoritarian systems leave fingerprints in the form of code, metadata, infrastructure, and operational errors. Her presentation explained in detail how these fingerprints are found, verified, and responsibly disclosed. The speaker placed modern digital oppression in a historical context of ethical sabotage. During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a predecessor organization of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), published a sabotage manual for civilians. In the digital world, there are clear parallels to the resistance doctrine of the OSS era.
The focus is clearly on nonviolent, reversible, evidence-based measures to protect civilians and journalists. Growing international concern about technology-enabled repression in many countries requires broad knowledge of the countermeasures discussed by Kubecka. Journalists, regulatory authorities, and civil society must therefore be informed. Technical clarity must always take precedence over politically influenced narratives. Especially in the area of digitalization and the immense dependence on a few tech companies, unfiltered transparency is therefore necessary. Authoritarian regimes around the world constantly misuse digital services for their own agenda. Only knowledge of this
can protect against it.
What’s next for Venezuela?
According to Kubecka’s analysis, Venezuela is entering a phase in which digital control is replacing political legitimacy as the primary mechanism of governance. This may serve as a blueprint for other countries around the world to use the same means to achieve the same goals. In the face of increasing international scrutiny, authoritarian systems are likely to rely more heavily on automated identification, AI-assisted narrative control, and civilian technologies repurposed for surveillance and intimidation. While these tools increase speed and reach, they also increase technical
exposure, creating international legal, regulatory, and corporate accountability vectors that did not previously exist.
Instead of a clean transition or sudden collapse, fragmentation is more likely: inconsistent enforcement, internal competition between institutions, and growing dependence on external allies and proxy infrastructures. This fragmentation increases both instability and the visibility of technical evidence. Once the infrastructure of oppression is documented, mapped, and assigned, it can no longer be overlooked. Long-term change is not only political but also archival in nature—what could once be denied becomes a permanent record.
Kubecka’s more comprehensive work on early warnings, ignored technical signals, and the consequences of rejecting expert
analysis will also be featured in the forthcoming German essay collection “Cassandra,” which deals with foresight and
responsibility in the evolving technology landscape. The publication includes the original presentation materials and
selected contextual notes for a non-technical audience. No sensitive sources or operational details beyond those
included in the original presentation have been added.
Kubecka, CEO of HypaSec, is a former US Air Force pilot, Space Command and Cyber Warfare Incident Responder with
experience in supporting governments and critical infrastructures in EMEA and Latin America. She previously led
high-profile investigations into state-sponsored cyber operations and abuses of digital surveillance.
DeepINTEL 2026
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