Anonymous Sudan is a group of hackers in Sudan who are religiously and politically motivated to carryout cyber security attacks on Western countries. The cyberattacker has taken credit for several Distributed-Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on Kenya and many other countries including the UAE, Australia, France, and Israel. According to a report from Radware, the group of cyberattackers have had several attacks on Western countries since January 2023.
This group of hackers attacked Sweden in January 21, 2023 due to a burnt-copy of Quran in Sweden by a political activist, Rasmus Paludan, who holds both Danish and Swedish citizenship. The Cyber attack was tagged #OpSweden and #OpDenmark. However, Rasmus Paludan swore to keep burning the Quran in Denmark until Sweden is committed into NATO.
Furthermore, for the purpose of getting the same intent during the Swedish cyberattacks, Killnet – a pro motivated and politically DDoS hacker group that’s based in Russia, pronounced the membership of Anonymous Sudan for joining its nest of hacktivists attacking Western nations and countries opposing Russia. Since the inception, Anonymous Sudan has make use of the reputation and influence of Killnet to build its members and become one of the most popular hacktivist groups of 2023.
March 2023 in France, Anonymous Sudan attacked Airports, Medical Facilities and Universities because a cartoon of prophet Mohammed was allegedly referencing the controversial Charlie Hebdo caricatures. In addition to France cyberattacks, the hacktivist exposed database of several airlines and payment platforms, which were posted on the dark web for sale. Moreso, since inception, Anonymous Sudan cyberattacks continue to spread throughout the globe.
Another noteworthy cyber security attack from Anonymous Sudan is the #OpIsrael and #OpsPetir – support rendered to pro-Palestinian hacktivists in April 2, 2023. Later that month, they announced India as their next target to sympathize with Indian Muslims under their misperceived Islamic cause. However, the group has already moved to Australia immediately after France attack to support pro-Muslim hacktivists Mysterious Team and Team Insane PK in their protest against Australia under the #OpAustralia campaign.
In May 2023, Anonymous Sudan impose threats on the United States (U.S) Government to protest potential interference in the Sudanese conflict going on the country. In June, the group started extorting victim for million dollars through telegram messages, threatening to keep them offline with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks – exact ones that’s currently happening to Kenya infrastructures.
Microsoft, one of the Anonymous Sudan’s extortion victims, confirmed that the group took credit for several disruptions that affected Outlook, Azure, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams. Meanwhile, Microsoft further explained that Anonymous Sudan focused on “disruption and publicity” with its DDoS attacks.
In the past few days, the group of hackers is focusing on Kenyan’s Digital Services because Kenyan Government seems to be interfering and meddling in Sudanese affairs. However, Anonymous Sudan has never denied the attacked of various websites owned by Government agencies and public companies, denying the sites from accessibility from users.
In the hacktivist telegram channel, it’s stated that “Kenyan overcritical infrastructure has been attacted and will continue to be targeted to teach its conceited government a lesson to not meddle in Sudanese internal affairs and what Sudan can do to it.” Anonymous Sudan has shutdown online or internet access of various universities, websites, healthcare organizations, and government agency’s online services including eCitizen in Kenya. In addition, the group has cited to attack over 100 more “critical infrastructures” in Kenya.
