U.S. Examining Alleged Cyberattack Plot by Venezuela, Iran

(Newsroom America) -- U.S. intelligence officials are examining an alleged plot by Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats in Mexico to stage cyberattacks against American targets, including nuclear power plants.

The Washington Times reported Wednesday that allegations about the alleged plot were broadcast in last week in a documentary on the Spanish-language TV network Univision. The documentary included secret video of Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats being briefed on the attacks and then promising to take the information back to their respective governments.

In the documentary, a former computer instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico said he was recruited in 2006 by a professor there to organize a group of student hackers who would then conduct cyberattacks against the U.S., the paper said, adding that the recruitment attempt was initially at the behest of the Cuban Embassy.

The instructor, Juan Carlos Munoz Ledo, and several students infiltrated the hacker group in a sting operation, secretly videotaping he Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats.

State Department officials said the U.S. is investigating the alleged plot but so far don't have any corroborating evidence.

The Times said news of the plot comes at a time when Iran is refusing to return to the U.S. a sophisticated surveillance drone that went down in the Islamic republic more than a week ago.

President Obama has appealed to the Iranian government to return the drone but so far Tehran is refusing.

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