The #teamHDP Venezuelan hacker group, Venezuelan hacker group, hacker group, hacker group? >Cybercriminals, hackactivists or spies? What we know is that they have jumped to the international scene in recent years. They define themselves as a group made up of young people passionate about technology and social justice who have embarked on a digital crusade to expose corruption, denounce government abuses and amplify the voices of citizens.
Source: https://x.com/Sol651/status/1709628919970664925
According to dataconfirmada.com a group of Venezuelan hackers managed to breach the computer security of the Ministry of People's Power for Defense of Nicolás Maduro's regime, leaking information from the Presidential Honor Guard ( GHP ), the DGCIM (Dirección de Contrainteligencia Militar) (Directorate of Military Counterintelligence) and the SEBIN (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) as well as 5,000 thousand confidential files of the Permanent Evaluation Board of the Bolivarian Navy. A part of it was published in https://www.dataconfirmada.com/ and another part was sold on the DarkWeb through hacker blogs where they interacted with Latin American drug cartels and possible Iranian intelligence services writing in Persian.
In a country like Venezuela, marked by economic and political crisis, teamHDP has proven to be a force to be reckoned with. Through strategic cyber attacks they have managed to draw global attention to the situation in Venezuela. Not only have they succeeded in terrorizing officials from the SEBIN, They have gone further by carrying out cyber attacks on government agents in the United States, Spain, Mexico and Panama on behalf of the oppressed.
Its origin dates back to 2016, when Bloomberg published the research "How to hack an election." https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-how-to-hack-an-election/ where it revealed that Andrés Sepúlveda (leer más), the right-wing Colombian political hacker, who worked as an undercover agent in PDVSA in the Chavez government and then betrayed him by joining Anonimous en Venezuela in 2012, a year in which he also manipulated manipulated the elections in Mexico.
First they were using the hashtag #TeamVene10 in 2016 and then changed to #TeamHDP in 2017.
According to journalist Damian Pachter (The journalist exiled for the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman) Team HDP hacked in 2021 the Venezuelan intelligence services to expose alleged members of Palestinian terrorist cells operating in Venezuela. However, it has been denounced that the information has been a Doxing campaign (online defamation) and that the same teamHDP group has exchanged sensitive information of the embassies of the United States, Canada, Portugal, Brazil and Colombia located in Venezuela with Islamic groups in hacker forums such as Dark Forums and Null. 1 2
One of its most notable achievements has been the leaking of government documents, both from Venezuela, Colombia, Spain and El Salvador, which revealed large-scale diversion of funds and irregular practices. The teamHDP actively interacts with the Telegram group "CiberinteligenciaSV" 3 who reveal confidential information about the support of the U.S. government to Najib Bukele. Najib Bukele and corruption cases in the Salvadoran government.
According to Rafa Marti, journalist for elespanol.com the group is composed of about twenty 'hacktivists' and they hacked the passwords to the e-mails of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), exposing it in different hacker forums credentials, conversations and links of the PSOE with pro-Russian groups linked to the Kremlin on October 28, 2023. 4 Among the emails were the leaked credentials of several high-ranking officials such as the newly inaugurated Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. 6
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The leader of the group is known as El Pinguino HDP (https://twitter.com/HdpYes), who has led much of the computer attacks.
Another prominent member is FailSistem (https://twitter.com/comandpsa ) Who unlike Penguin, has been the most successful Hacker in computer attacks.
Both accounts have been involved in channel hacks TeleSur channel, the website of the Venezuelan Public Ministry, the website of the Presidency of Venezuela, the website of the Presidency of Cuba and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, of the Islamic University of Gaza. The list includes attacks against the government of Gustavo Petro in Colombia, against the Iranian regime of the Ayatollahs, against the government of Chile, the government of Peru and the official website of Donald Trump (https://www.donaldjtrump.com/). The hacking of Donald Trump's website was an order negotiated in "Rent a Hacker Service" on the Dark web with Turkic cybercriminals who interacted in the forum conversation. 5
The group operates by stealing data through the use of Ransomware, Medusa, Blackmatter y Lockbit 2.0 attacking servers in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, Mexico, Panama and the United States, demanding exorbitant amounts for the decryption of the data with the threat of making all the information public on the dark web and on telegram channels such as Breach Forums.
Another prominent member is Cesar Moya, who publishes all of the Team's achievements and is more dedicated to attacking the Venezuelan Government by disseminating leaked information.
They primarily target government agencies, political figures and high-profile individuals to expose their personal information online as a form of protest or retaliation.
Source: https://x.com/N0cre0ennadie25/status/1815773998870827334
First, they carry out social engineering to gain privileged access to systems, either by cloning whatsapp accounts or obtaining email passwords. Then they expose their targets on their Twitter accounts, nowadays x.com, in order to extort them by means of cryptocurrency payments in exchange for deleting the information.
Source: https://x.com/Sol651/status/1741548143248900201
They take advantage of nude photographs, photographs with personalities that link them to corruption or political activists. The most exploited situations are information about acts considered immoral such as prostitution, alcohol or drugs. Then they expose everything on social networks and force their targets to give them privileged information, even remote access to systems.
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After the Doxing campaigns carried out by the Team, they turn the hacked people into a kind of agents from whom they request information and privileged access to systems to continue their operations, in exchange for eliminating the information and preventing it from being leaked to the media.
Source: https://x.com/TheBulldogHDP/status/1814083499873173845
Some of the hacked people who do not want to collaborate have been exposed on social networks, even with videos of them having sexual relations. Another of the strategies that have been evidenced is that this group has marketed photographs of minors in pedophile telegram groups. The photographs are usually of family members of members of the Venezuelan government, which are stolen from hacked devices downloaded from whatsapp and google photos and then appear commercialized on the internet with the acronym CP or Caldo de Pollo, referring to child pornography. The same methodology has been applied in the United States and Spain.
To reverse the reputational and moral damage, many agree to the Team's requests. This is how they succeeded in hacking the PSOE.
Its main source of financing is extortion, the sale of confidential information to intelligence services such as Iran, Palestine, Russia and Cuba, in addition to the kidnapping of data by means of Ransomware.
The Crypto-Entrepreneur Newman Pérez urged his community of followers to take down the Twitter account of one of Venezuela's most dangerous hackers known as El Pingüino HDP (@HDPcheck). https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=485810456317023
Source: https://www.picuki.com/media/2424231808512489218
Source: https://x.com/adeferr/status/1135671352738947073
He stated that El Pinguino, leader of Team HDP was Gerardo José Gil Dams, the hacker who sabotaged the flight screens of the International Airport of Maiquetía, with the message "Maduro Dictator".
He also pointed out Miguel Galindo Ballesteros, son of the chavista and former Attorney General of the Republic, as part of Team HDP.
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGkmfxXlvcC/
He also pointed out that these individuals steal passwords, clone telephones, intrude into the computers of these personalities and steal confidential and personal information, often intimate information, and then extort them to publish it if they do not pay a large sum of money.
Although these criminals pose as opposition, they do not distinguish between colors or political sides when it comes to committing their misdeeds, they just want easy money.
Source: https://www.picuki.com/media/1774174195157338100
Gerardo José Eleazar Gil Dams, known as Er Pinguino HDP, a prominent hacker who has put the Venezuelan state and many intelligence services worldwide to suffer. He is the person who always figures in the money transactions and sale of data in the Dark Web forums and who has published the most important attacks at x.com
He was born on 09/29/1983 and was requested on 07/06/2021 by Judge Isaura Gil Carolina Rivas for investigation by the Fifth Prosecutor's Office of the Public Prosecutor's Office for having incurred in computer crimes. He hacked the screens of the Porlamar airport with the message "Maduro Dictator". 7
He was discovered due to whatsapp communications with Humberto Félix Aviso Salazar, an employee of Bolivariana de Aeropuertos (BAER) who was detained in SEBIN, who served as Gil Dams accomplice. 9 Humberto Félix Aviso Salazar At that time Gerardo Gil Dams had the account @ThePinguinHDP. Source: El-carabobeno.com
Police sources informed a digital media that in addition to investigations for computer crimes, Gerardo Gil Dams is being investigated for his links to drug trafficking, extortion and sex crimes.
The Team Leader was missing for a while due to his mistake, however he fled Venezuela to the United States to avoid capture and currently operates from Orlando Florida, from where he has carried out his two most successful hacks: the Digitel data breach. 10 11 12 and the Farmatodo hack. 13 14
Although the account https://x.com/x00x01x01 has claimed responsibility for the hacks, the pattern of behavior on the Dark Web indicates that it is the famous Penguin Gerardo Gil and Miguel Galindo (El Rey Tuki), who have used the data to trade sensitive data and exchange it with data leaks from political parties in other countries such as Spain, Germany, the United States and Canada.
Among the hacked sites are the official website of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve of the United States, The Bank of Venezuela, NIC.ve , http://yucatan.gob.mx/ , the Seniat (Venezuela's tax collection institute), official Kremlin state web pages and websites related to Hamas 15.
Source: https://x.com/echacone/status/1220183121964027914
Source: https://x.com/x00x01x01
Source: https://x.com/Alexher776/status/1690361926314868736
Source: https://x.com/FlawlessShot1/status/1489047570747953156
https://x.com/GeorgeArtwell/status/1462117852081709059
Source: https://x.com/AlbertoRodNews/status/1497629032153681920
TeamHDP's new objective is to hack Venezuela's presidential elections by threatening the National Electoral Center CNE.
Source: https://x.com/2018resistencia/status/1816170398075216162
Source: https://x.com/HdpYes/status/1816992234069168477
Gerardo Gil Dams has also had different legal problems in the United States for his digital activities, being sued on several occasions for defamation and extortion. 15
Gerardo J Gil Dams is currently cleaning up his online reputation by publishing press releases on websites to position positive information about him in search engines and not to be related to the Team, as well as removing evidence from darkweb forums that link him to pedophilia, doxing and cyber espionage to different countries:
Source: https://thefreedompost.net
In addition to cleaning up his reputation, he also offers the service of reputation cleaning on the Internet to artists, politicians and high officials, being very effective in the elimination of chavista news on news websites in Venezuela and the United States. Many of the news that it eliminates are the product of the same Doxing campaigns that the #TeamHDP through a whole chain of twitter, facebook and allied websites automations. The research portals armando.info y cuentasclarasdigital.org have documented this type of sensura ha and the reputation cleansing that has not only been limited to Chavistas, but also to drug traffickers and members of the money laundering scheme. It has removed stories from media outlets such as lapatilla.com, armando.info, reportedelaeconomía, elpais.com, bbc.com, infobae.com, usatoday.com, apnews.com, corruptometro.org y wikipedia.org.
Following the trail of Gil Dams and Miguel Galindo Ballesteros we have been able to find relationships between journalists and media such as Joseph Poliszuk in Mexico City, Nadir Yaqoob in Pakistan, Carlos Rafael Alvarado Grimán in Venezuela, as well as Laura de Rosa, Esteban Rafael Figeroa, Esteban Rafael Figeroa and Raymond K Azar who help to spread the leaks made by the famous Team HDP.
One of the media that publishes the doxing campaigns of the is https://nuevaprensaamerica.com which is directed by the known extortionist Aarón Elías Castro Pulgar, who then deletes the articles through Laura de Rosa, Miguel Galindo Ballesteros and Gil Dams Gerardo Jose Eleazar. These characters may be related to the Team's other activities such as child pornography, drug trafficking and cyber espionage.
One of the reasons why Aarón Castro Pulgar, Galindo Ballesteros and Gerardo Jose Eleazar Gil obtained privileged information from the Venezuelan government is because they had links with the well-known hacker N33 Juan Manuel Almeida Morgado, who leaked confidential information from SEBIN, the TV program La Hojilla. The HDP team played both sides in Venezuela, to earn money and obtain privileged information with the help of Juan Almeida Morgado (their incubator agent who was commonly confused with the HDP penguin). Hacker N33 was arrested for his links to Tareck El Aissami and the corruption scheme known as PDVSA Crypto and died under strange circumstances. 16
Source: https://nuevaprensaamerica.com/
While teamHDP's actions have been the subject of controversy and have faced strong criticism from the authorities, their international impact is undeniable. They have succeeded in inspiring other activist groups in the region and have demonstrated that, even in hostile environments, technology can be a powerful tool for social change.
As the Venezuelan crisis continues to unfold, the role of teamHDP will remain crucial. Their unwavering determination and vision for a more just and equitable future for Venezuela has captured the world's attention, making them a symbol of resistance and hope.
