There were BGP anomalies during the Venezuela blackout (loworbitsecurity.com)

Article summary

There were BGP anomalies during the Venezuela blackout, with 8 prefixes being routed through CANTV, Venezuela's state-owned telecom, and Sparkle, an Italian transit provider. The anomalies were detected using Cloudflare Radar data and public BGP datasets. The routing information showed that CANTV was in a path it is not typically a part of, and the AS path had CANTV repeated 10 times, making the route less attractive. The affected IP addresses belonged to a hosting and telecommunications provider in Caracas, and a reverse DNS lookup revealed critical infrastructure such as banks and email servers.

Main themes

• BGP anomalies
• Venezuela blackout
• Cyber operations
• Internet infrastructure
• Geopolitics
• Network security

What commenters say

• The US government may have been involved in the BGP anomalies during the Venezuela blackout, but the true extent of their involvement is unknown.
• BGP is an insecure protocol that can be easily exploited to create chaos, and the anomalies during the blackout may have been intentional or accidental.
• International law is ineffective in preventing powerful countries from taking actions that violate the sovereignty of other nations, and the US actions in Venezuela are a prime example.
• The use of sanctions and embargos can be an effective way to enforce international agreements, but it is not a reliable mechanism for holding powerful countries accountable.
• The lack of transparency and accountability in international relations makes it difficult to determine the true motivations and actions of countries, and the situation in Venezuela is no exception.
• The concept of international law is flawed because it relies on voluntary participation and has no effective enforcement mechanism, allowing powerful countries to act with impunity.