Acosta allegedly participated in a plot to target sensitive national security facilities, including nuclear power plants, while she was stationed at the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico, according to a report by the Washington Times citing Spanish-language TV network Univision.
A former computer instructor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico told Univision that he was recruited by a professor there in 2006 to organize a group of student hackers to carry out cyberattacks against the United States.
In an undercover sting, instructor Juan Carlos Munoz Ledo and several selected students infiltrated the hackers and secretly videotaped Iranian and Venezuelan diplomats meeting about the planned attacks on the US facilities.
In the secretly recorded meetings, the hackers' list of possible targets included the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, and both military and civilian nuclear facilities.
The hackers told the diplomats they were seeking passwords to protected systems and needed support and funding.
According to a report in the Miami Herald, Venezuelan press reports indicate that Acosta may have already departed in late December, soon after news broke about the allegations, prior to the US expulsion.