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Two brothers have been indicted for their involvement in the Anonymous Sudan threat group, best known for launching Distributed denial of service (DDoS) on major organisations and government agencies.
Anonymous Sudan has claimed DDoS attacks on the likes of Microsoft, Ao3, PayPal, Reddit, X (formerly Twitter), Wells Fargo, Cloudflare, ChatGPT and OpenAI, League of Legends, Cambridge University, Meta, French government agencies and more. The group often claimed that its attacks were hacktivist movements and claimed they were in response to attacks on Ukraine. However,
It also sold the use of its Distributed Cloud Attack Tool (DCAT) infrastructure to other threat actors, which was responsible for over 35,000 DDoS attacks in a single year, and was known to support other pro-Russian and anti-western, anti-Nato and anti-Israel threat groups such as Killnet and Usersec.
The US DoJ said that since it began garnering attention in January 2023, the group’s attacks caused over US$10 million (almost A$15 million) in damages to US citizens.
In March this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FBI seized and disarmed the groups DCAT, also known as “InfraShutdown”, “Godzilla” and “Skynet”. The same month, the group claimed a DDoS attack on the US Department of Justice (DoJ, but provided no proof of the incident. Since then, the group has remained dark.
Now, the DoJ has unsealed charges against 22 year old Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer and 27 year old Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer. Both were charged with one count of conspiracy to damage computers, whilst Ahmed Salah faced an additional three counts of damaging protected computers.
““These charges and the results of this investigation, made possible through law enforcement and private sector partnerships, have an immeasurable impact on the security of networks in the U.S. and of its allies, and demonstrates the resolve of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) to safeguard the Department of Defense from evolving cyber threats,” said Kenneth A. DeChellis, DCIS Cyber Field Office, Special Agent in Charge.
“Cybercriminals need to understand that if they target America’s warfighters, they will face consequences.”
If convicted and arrested, Ahmed Salah is facing potential life in federal prison, whilst his brother Alaa Salah faces five years.
“Anonymous Sudan sought to maximize havoc and destruction against governments and businesses around the world by perpetrating tens of thousands of cyberattacks,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada.
“This group’s attacks were callous and brazen—the defendants went so far as to attack hospitals providing emergency and urgent care to patients. My office is committed to safeguarding our nation’s infrastructure and the people who use it, and we will hold cyber criminals accountable for the grave harm they cause.
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