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.
Source: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2026/01/16/854637.htm
PDVSA Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/petroleosdevenezuela
"id": "PET1768583981",
"linkid": "petroleosdevenezuela",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "12/2025",
"severity": "100",
"impact": "5",
"explanation": "Attack threatening the organization's existence"{'affected_entities': [{'industry': 'Oil and gas',
'location': 'Venezuela',
'name': 'Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA)',
'type': 'State-owned oil company'}],
'data_breach': {'personally_identifiable_information': 'Pension-related '
'personal data '
'(submitted in person '
'for manual '
'processing)'},
'date_detected': '2023-12-15',
'description': 'A December 15 cyberattack on Venezuela’s state-owned oil '
'company, Petróleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), 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 '
'handling accounting, payments, and production data. Internal '
'email and corporate portals were offline, leading to delays '
'in payments and pension access.',
'impact': {'operational_impact': 'Forced manual operations, delayed payments '
'to contractors and workers, pension access '
'issues',
'systems_affected': ['SCADA platform',
'SAP software',
'Internal email',
'Corporate portals']},
'investigation_status': 'Ongoing (as of late January)',
'lessons_learned': 'Vulnerability of aging technological infrastructure due '
'to underinvestment, corruption, and U.S. sanctions '
'restricting system upgrades',
'post_incident_analysis': {'root_causes': 'Aging technological '
'infrastructure, underinvestment, '
'corruption, U.S. sanctions '
'restricting system upgrades'},
'references': [{'source': 'Cyber Incident Description'}],
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Use of WhatsApp, Telegram, Gmail, '
'phone calls, and handwritten reports'},
'title': 'Cyberattack Paralyzes Venezuela’s Oil Giant PDVSA, Forcing Manual '
'Operations',
'type': 'Cyberattack'}