A federal grand jury unsealed an indictment in opposition to two Sudanese brothers Wednesday, charging them with operating “Nameless Sudan,” one of the vital prolific cyberattack-for-hire gangs of all time and allegedly behind tens of hundreds of assaults.
Federal prosecutors accused Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, of finishing up 35,000 denial-of-service assaults in opposition to a whole lot of organizations in only one 12 months, taking down web sites and different networks as a part of an ideologically motivated extortion scheme affecting hundreds of shoppers.
In response to prosecutors, the pair focused an extended listing of high-profile victims worldwide and throughout the U.S., together with Microsoft, ChatGPT, PayPal, X, Yahoo, airports, the Pentagon, the Division of Justice, Alabama’s state authorities, in addition to a minimum of one hospital: Cedars-Sinai within the Los Angeles space.
The group held a “Sudanese nationalist ideology,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. lawyer for the Central District of California, stated in a press convention on Wednesday, charging clients $600 or much less to launch main assaults.
“Nameless Sudan sought to maximise havoc and destruction in opposition to governments and companies all over the world by perpetrating tens of hundreds of cyberattacks,” Estrada stated. “This group’s assaults have been callous and brazen — the defendants went as far as to assault hospitals offering emergency and pressing care to sufferers,” he added.
The group additionally focused governmental and personal organizations within the Netherlands, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Chad, Israel and the U.Ok.
In response to federal prosecutors, Ahmed Salah allegedly created the DDoS assault infrastructure of Nameless Sudan after which posted messages on Telegram taking credit score for the assaults. Alaa Salah allegedly offered pc code and programming help.
A grand jury indictment charged the pair with one depend of conspiracy to break protected computer systems. Ahmed Salah was additionally charged with three counts of damaging protected computer systems.
If convicted of all fees, Ahmed Salah faces a most sentence of life in jail associated to the assault on Cedars-Sinai hospital, which endangered sufferers’ lives, based on the indictment. Alaa Salah would face a most sentence of 5 years, if convicted.
Estrada stated that if discovered responsible, it might mark the primary cybercrime conviction tied to bodily hurt within the U.S.
Nameless Sudan’s assault on Cedars-Sinai Medical Middle in February shuttered emergency providers quickly, inflicting incoming sufferers to be redirected to different medical services for about eight hours.
In response to the indictment, Nameless Sudan operated a number of Telegram channels, posting “details about their assaults, their DDoS instruments and pricing, and their victims,” and boasted as many as 80,000 subscribers at one time. The group’s operations resulted in additional than $10 million in damages to victims within the U.S.
Federal prosecutors allege that since early 2023, the brothers have used the group’s Distributed Cloud Assault Software (DCAT) to conduct devastating and sometimes dayslong DDoS assaults. DDoS assaults — or “distributed denial of service” — barrage web sites with site visitors, rendering them unusable.
“The FBI’s seizure of this highly effective DDoS software efficiently disabled the assault platform that precipitated widespread harm and disruptions to vital infrastructure and networks all over the world,” stated Particular Agent in Cost Rebecca Day of the FBI Anchorage Discipline Workplace, in a press release. “With the FBI’s mixture of distinctive authorities, capabilities, and partnerships, there is no such thing as a restrict to our attain with regards to combating all types of cybercrime and defending world cybersecurity.”
In response to Estrada, each brothers have been arrested overseas in March and have been in custody since then, although the U.S. lawyer declined to call the nation holding them or touch upon potential extradition.
