Two Sudanese men were charged by the Department of Justice with leading a hacking group that is responsible for launching tens of thousands of attacks against organizations such as hospitals and critical government infrastructure.
Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, were charged with conspiracy to damage protected computers, while Ahmed Salah was charged with three counts of damaging protected computers, according to the DOJ.
The two are accused of running Anonymous Sudan, a hacking group that launched more than 35,000 “denial of service” attacks against organizations, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, causing it to shut down for hours and reroute patients to another hospital, according to Wired.
A denial of service attack is when a hacker floods a system, usually an online server, with an overwhelming amount of “junk” requests or traffic, severely hampering its performance or even taking the system or website down.
“Anonymous Sudan sought to maximize havoc and destruction against governments and businesses around the world by perpetrating tens of thousands of cyberattacks,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, according to the DOJ release. “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.”
The group also reportedly launched an attack against Israel‘s Tzeva Adom app, which warns civilians of incoming missile attacks, during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack of last year.
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The group said on Telegram that it attacked organizations in the United States, including the DOJ, FBI, and government systems in Alabama, due to the U.S.’s actions.
“We declare cyber war on the United States,” Ahmed Omer wrote, according to the outlet. “The United States will be our primary target.”