Anonymous Sudan

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Anonymous Sudan is a hacker group that has been active since mid-January 2023 and believed to have originated from Russia with no links to Sudan or Anonymous.[1][2] They have launched a variety of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets.

Origins and identity[edit]

Despite the name, there is no proven link between Anonymous Sudan and the country of Sudan.[3][1][2] The group surfaced as a Russian-speaking Telegram channel in mid-January.[4] Some experts,[5] including cybersecurity company CyberCX,[2] believe the group originates from or is supported by Russia.[1] The group is also not linked to Anonymous.[1][6]

Targets and motives[edit]

Anonymous Sudan claims to target countries and organizations engaging in self-described "anti-Muslim activity".[3] The group claims to be anti-Zionist[7] and pro-Islam.[8][9] However, they have also collaborated with pro-Russian attack groups like Killnet,[10] and their attacks seem to align with a pro-Russian agenda.[1]

As a response to the International Committee of the Red Cross rules of engagement for civilian hackers, a representative of Anonymous Sudan said these rules were "not viable and that breaking them for the group's cause is unavoidable".[11]

Attacks[edit]

Anonymous Sudan has launched a variety of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against targets in Sweden, Denmark,[12] the US,[13] Australia,[14] and other countries.[3] Their victims include Cloudflare,[15] Associated Press,[16] Netflix,[17][18] and PayPal,[19] among others. Anonymous Sudan has successfully disrupted the website of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)[20] and even took down Microsoft 365 software suite,[21] including Teams and Outlook.[3] They also took Twitter (now known as X) offline in more than a dozen countries to pressure Elon Musk to enable Starlink service for Sudan.[22][6][23] According to the Cyberint Research Team, the group launched 670 attacks in their first 6 months of activity.[24]

On 8 June 2023, Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for a DDoS attack on Azure portal which caused an outage of this and other Microsoft cloud services between ~15 UTC and ~17:30 UTC.[25]

During the War in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Anonymous Sudan launched cyberattacks on the Kenyan government and private websites in the last week of July 2023, in retaliation for the country's support of the RSF.[26][27] In January and February 2024, Anonymous Sudan claimed to have disabled all internet services in Chad[28] and Djibouti, respectively, as part of a cyberattack to protest the country's relations with the RSF.[29] The group continued attacking Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) countries[30] (including Uganda in February) due to their backing of the RSF.[31] The group also attacked the United Arab Emirates, a major supporter of the RSF.[32]

On 10 July 2023, Anonymous Sudan attacked fanfiction site Archive of Our Own with a denial-of-service attack. Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility in a Telegram post, saying the act was motivated by the website's United States registration and its inclusion of sexual and LGBT content.[33][34] The group then demanded $30,000 worth of Bitcoin within 24 hours to end the attack.[33][34] The site came back online the next day with Cloudflare protection added.[35]

During the Israel–Hamas war, media teams operating in the region have been exposed to various kinds of cyberattack. The Jerusalem Post website went down on 9 October 2023, with Anonymous Sudan claiming responsibility. The Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa also experienced a cyberattack on 18 October 2023, as did Al-Jazeera English on 31 October 2023 and Al-Mamlaka TV on 3 November 2023.[36] In November 2023, the group targeted Israel infrastructure.[37][38]

In December 2023, Anonymous Sudan launched a DDoS attack on ChatGPT[39][40][41] after Tal Broda, a member of OpenAI's leadership, made a social media post dehumanizing Palestinians, calling for more intense bombing in Gaza, and advocating ethnic cleansing.[42][43]

In January 2024, Anonymous Sudan failed to hack the London Internet Exchange in response to the UK's missile strikes in Yemen.[7][44]

The group targeted systems at the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester on 19 February 2024, citing the United Kingdom's support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas War, and targeting these specific universities "because they are the biggest ones" they could find. Disruption was largely over by 20 February though some systems were still affected.[45]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e Petkauskas, Vilius (2023-06-23). "Anonymous Sudan: neither anonymous nor Sudanese". CyberNews.
  2. ^ a b c Taylor, Josh (19 June 2023). "Hackers behind Microsoft outage most likely Russian-backed group aiming to 'drive division' in the west". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d "What is Anonymous Sudan?". Cloudflare.
  4. ^ "Anonymous Sudan | NETSCOUT". www.netscout.com. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  5. ^ "'Hactivists' who targeted Microsoft claim they're working for Sudan". Fortune Europe. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  6. ^ a b Shah, Saqib (2023-08-29). "Hacker group behind Twitter outage mocks Elon Musk's rebrand". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  7. ^ a b "London internet attack highlights confusing hacktivism movement". CSO Online. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  8. ^ Desk, Cyber (2023-11-27). "Anonymous Sudan: Pro-Islamic Hacker Group Engages in Cryptocurrency Donation Campaign". ICT. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  9. ^ "Posing as Islamists, Russian Hackers Take Aim at Sweden". Bloomberg.com. 2023-05-14. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  10. ^ "Anonymous Sudan and Killnet Factor in the Russia-Ukraine War in the Context of Cyber Security". Future Human Image (19): 34–40. 2023. ISSN 2311-8822.
  11. ^ Tidy, Joe (2023-10-04). "Rules of engagement issued to hacktivists after chaos". BBC News. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
  12. ^ "LockBit, Anonymous Sudan Attacks and More". GlobalSign. 2023-11-29. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  13. ^ "Anonymous Sudan's DDoS attacks against US targets". InCyber. 2023-07-21. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  14. ^ "Who is 'Anonymous Sudan'?". ABC listen. 2023-06-19. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  15. ^ Staff, S. C. (2023-11-13). "Anonymous Sudan DDoS attack hits Cloudflare website". SC Media. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  16. ^ "AP cyberattack: Has Anonymous Sudan hit Associated Press?". 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  17. ^ "Netflix impacted by Anonymous Sudan DDoS attack". Media. 2023-10-02.
  18. ^ Culture, Shannon Power Pop; Reporter, Entertainment (2023-09-29). "Netflix taken down by hackers over LGBTQ+ content". Newsweek. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  19. ^ "Anonymous Sudan claims successful DDoS cyberattack on PayPal". 2023-07-17. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  20. ^ Staff, S. C. (2023-06-01). "Scandinavian Airlines receives $3M demand to cease Anonymous Sudan DDoS attacks". SC Media. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  21. ^ Taylor, Josh (2023-06-19). "Hackers behind Microsoft outage most likely Russian-backed group aiming to 'drive division' in the west". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  22. ^ "Anonymous Sudan hacks X to put pressure on Elon Musk over Starlink". BBC News. 2023-08-31. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  23. ^ Farmer, Ben (2023-08-31). "Hackers shut down Twitter putting Musk under pressure to extend Starlink internet service to Sudan". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  24. ^ "Anonymous Sudan Launches Cyberattack on Chad Telco". www.darkreading.com. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  25. ^ "Azure status history | Microsoft Azure". azure.status.microsoft. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  26. ^ "Sudan hackers target Kenyan govt websites". Radio Dabanga. 31 July 2023. Archived from the original on 30 July 2023. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
  27. ^ "Kenya cyber-attack: Why is eCitizen down?". 2023-07-28. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  28. ^ "Anonymous Sudan Launches Cyberattack on Chad Telco". www.darkreading.com. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  29. ^ "Anonymous Sudan hacks IGAD countries over alleged RSF support". Sudan Tribune. 6 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  30. ^ SudanTribune (2024-02-07). "Anonymous Sudan hacks IGAD countries over alleged RSF support". Sudan Tribune. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  31. ^ Kwinika, Savious Parker (2024-02-09). "Anonymous Sudan attacks again, this time in Uganda". ITWeb Africa. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  32. ^ "Anonymous Sudan claims responsibility for cyber attacks on UAE entities | Digital Watch Observatory". 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  33. ^ a b Hollingworth, David (11 July 2023). "Fanfic Writers Targeted by Anonymous Sudan in Apparent DDOS Attack on AO3". Cyber Security Connect. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  34. ^ a b Diaz, Ana (10 July 2023). "Archive of Our Own is down due to a DDoS attack". Polygon. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  35. ^ Weatherbed, Jess (11 July 2023). "The massive fanfic archive AO3 is back after a wave of DDoS attacks". The Verge. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  36. ^ "Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: The high risks of reporting the Israel-Gaza war". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 2023-11-13. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  37. ^ "Anonymous Sudan Targets Israel's Critical Infrastructure – Westoahu Cybersecurity". Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  38. ^ "How hackers piled onto the Israeli-Hamas conflict". POLITICO. 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  39. ^ Jain, Samiksha (15 Dec 2023). "Anonymous Sudan Targets OpenAI Again, Demands Firing of Research Head". The Cyber Express. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023.
  40. ^ Sharma, Aakash (19 Dec 2023). "'Will target ChatGPT until it stops dehumanizing Palestinians': Hackers on outage". India Today. Delhi. Archived from the original on 28 December 2023.
  41. ^ Winder, Davey. "ChatGPT Down As Anonymous Sudan Hackers Claim Responsibility". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  42. ^ Sabin, Sam. "Anonymous Sudan hacking group sets sights on ChatGPT". Axios. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  43. ^ Varanasi, Lakshmi (15 Dec 2023). "Hackers behind recent ChatGPT outage say they'll target the AI bot until it stops 'dehumanizing' Palestinians". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 17 December 2023.
  44. ^ "Anonymous Sudan claims cyberattack on London Internet Exchange in response to UK's Yemen strikes". teiss. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  45. ^ Jack, Patrick (2024-02-20). "UK universities targeted by cyberattack". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
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