Two Men Indicted for Role in February 2024 Cyberattack on Cedars-Sinai
Two Sudanese nationals have been charged for their role in a series of cyberattacks on corporate networks, government agencies, and critical infrastructure entities in the United States, including a February 2024 attack on Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles that caused patients to be diverted to alternative facilities for 8 hours. The two men – Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27 – are alleged members of an online cybercriminal group called Anonymous Sudan, a group that has been active since mid-January 2023 and has conducted more than 35,000 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks worldwide.
While many cybercriminal groups are primarily financially motivated, Anonymous Sudan claims to be a hacktivist group that conducts attacks against targets it considers to be anti-muslim, in part in support of Palestine, although the group has attempted to extort money from some victims. Due to the sophistication of the group’s attacks and the financial resources required, there have been suggestions that the group has significant backing, and may potentially be state-sponsored. While the group does not appear to be directly linked to any one state, CheckPoint’s Cyberint research team suggests the group’s attacks may serve the interests of both Russia and Iran, although admits that the group potentially has complex motivations behind its actions.
Anonymous Sudan primarily conducts DDoS attacks with the intention of causing major disruption at targeted organizations and governments and intentionally damaging protected computers. The group claims responsibility for the attacks it conducts and seeks publicity through posts on popular channels, often bad-mouthing and taunting victims. Last week, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced that a federal grand jury indictment has been unsealed that charges the men with one count of conspiracy to damage protected computers and alleges they were responsible for operating and controlling Anonymous Sudan.
In March 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized and disabled the group’s Distributed Cloud Attack Tool (DCAT), which was used to conduct multiple destructive DDoS attacks in the United States and was sold as a service to other cybercriminal threat groups. U.S. victims include the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, the State Department, the state of Alabama, and technology platforms such as Riot Games and Microsoft. Anonymous Sudan’s attacks have caused significant disruption and more than $10 million in damages to U.S. victims. If found guilty of all the charges by a court of law, Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer will face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer will face a maximum sentence of 5 years in federal prison.
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