TWO Sudanese nationals face charges for running a guerrilla computer hacking group that sought to declare cyber war against the United States. Their targets, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday, include the FBI, hospitals, Hulu, Netflix, CNN, Microsoft, Reddit and X.
The internet cybercriminal group known as Anonymous Sudan uses malicious software with names like Godzilla, Skynet, and InfraShutdown. They launched a broad cyberattack campaign, court documents say, to wreak havoc on major targets across the US and beyond.
According to the Department of Justice, Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer were charged with conspiracy and computer damage for coordinated cyber attacks through Anonymous Sudan from 2023 to this year. An indictment was unsealed Wednesday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
The indictment is the latest against foreign hackers who, according to prosecutors, aimed to disrupt US infrastructure. Suspected cybercriminals from China and Russia face charges over similar attacks targeting politicians, schools and national security this year.
Anonymous Sudan targeted the Department of Justice, FBI, government agencies in Alabama, Microsoft, and X through the attack. The group carried out more than 35,000 attacks, 70 of which targeted the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Their actions, prosecutors said, caused losses of more than $10 million in the US.
US Attorney Martin Estrada called their actions, “callous and brazen,” when they attacked the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The attack forced incoming patients to be directed to other facilities for nearly eight hours. “Anonymous Sudan seeks to maximize havoc and damage to governments and businesses around the world by launching tens of thousands of cyberattacks,” he said.
Federal prosecutors said the duo launched the attack through Distributed Denial of Service. FBI Special Agent Elliott Peterson described the method in court documents as saying that the victim’s computer was flooded with data and requests so that it could not connect to other internet devices or function properly.
Peterson added that Anonymous Sudan’s servers were connected to the internet and used to carry out each attack earlier this year. He wrote that the pair sold Anonymous Sudan’s server credentials to others, possibly so other criminals could cause damage and try to infiltrate computer systems.
Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud computing platform, said Wednesday that Anonymous Sudan sells the attack for US$100 per day, US$600 per week and US$1,700 per month and has many customers. The group seeks to, “Declare cyber war against the United States, the United States will be our primary target,” Peterson wrote. The attack was coordinated on Telegram, an encrypted messaging platform. (USA Today/Z-2)
Each successful attack is celebrated on Telegram as the pair check the website to confirm the attack. Peterson said they moved to the hospital in response to the Israel-Hamas war.
“3 hours+ and still holding, they tried hard to fix it but it didn’t work. Bomb our hospitals in Gaza, we shut down yours too, revenge,” Peterson said in a Telegram chat about Cedars-Sinai Health Systems.
The anonymous Sudanese turned to private companies, saying in Telegram chats anyone could be a target, Peterson said. Companies such as Hulu, Netflix, CNN, The Associated Press, Target and Reddit were all victims of attacks in 2023, according to federal charging documents. The group escalated their attacks on Microsoft servers and demanded $1 million to teach their employees how to stop the attacks.
The cyber group expanded its victims beyond the US, court documents said. The Netherlands, France, the European Union, Kenya, Chad, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Israel, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan were all targeted. No explanation was given as to why they targeted Sudan. (USA Today/Z-2)
#Sudanese #Citizens #Charged #Cyber #Attacks
