If you are reading this, probably you have heard about Anonymous Sudan, a hacker group that this week has reigned terror on major websites in Kenya, cutting major services especially the E-Citizen platform that houses over 5,000 services.
Besides E-Citizen, the group has targeted other State agencies, private companies, and some media outlets.
While the government and affected companies have not issued statements on Anonymous Sudan claims, system outages including banks and mobile money services have sent shivers.
Kenyans do not know yet the extent of the attacks, but the group has made known their intentions that they will not stop until Kenya stops meddling in the ongoing war in Sudan over the control of the country.
Who is Anonymous Sudan
Anonymous is a global decentralised hacking group that targets governments and other institutions including companies to push against different causes. It started in 2003 representing online and offline groups fighting for a cause.
There have since been many offshoots pledging allegiance to the global goal. While Anonymous Sudan's origin is not clear, the group has been linked pro-Russian cybercrime group Killnet.
The group targeted Western nations and countries opposing Russia and used the influence of Killnet to grow its base.
Past Attacks
Anonymous Sudan has conducted cyberattacks on other countries and companies in recent years as well. Notably, the group has hit targets in Sweden, USA, France, Australia and Israel.
Scandinavia
In January 2023, the group conducted attacks on Swedish entities including government websites belonging to Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark under the tags #OpSweden and #OpDenmark.
The attacks were in response to a Danish-Swedish politician Rasmas Paludan, who had organised an anti-Islam protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Sweden during which he burned a copy of the Quran on January 22, 2023.
After the incident, speculations circulated online that the group sought to make Sweden's bid to join North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) less likely to succeed.
France
In March 2023, the group targetted Air France, flag carrier of the nation, and claimed to have stolen data from the airline. The group also claimed that it would sell the data for Ksh426 million. Air France did not confirm the reports but said that it was investigating the claim. The airline also pointed out that it was taking steps to protect customers' data.
“We will keep punishing you and your company non-stop as we have been doing for the past 120 hours," the hackers wrote on the Telegram channel.
Australia
From March 24, 2023 to April 2, 2023, the group conducted a series of attacks on Australian companies, including healthcare, aviation, and education organisations, after a Melbourne fashion label featured the Arabic for “God” on its garments.
Israel
During Israeli Independence Day on April 26, 2023, Anonymous Sudan moved their crosshairs to Israel where they claimed to conduct attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s website and Facebook account.
Multiple reports also linked the group to attacks on the websites of the Haifa Port, Israel Ports Development, the National Insurance Institute, and the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency.
On May 2, 2023, they also took credit in temporarily disarming Israel’s missile defense system, although this remains unconfirmed by the Israeli government. The cyberattack reportedly allowed 16 rockets fired to enter Israeli territory, with a 71 per cent success rate.
UAE
On May 5, 2023, the group shared screenshots of eight websites belonging to official domains attributed to the official United Arab Emirates (UAE). Shortly thereafter, they targeted the websites and application of Abu Dhabi Bank.
USA
American multinational technology corporation, Microsoft revealed in June 2023, that a cyberattack caused its Outlook email service to go down. The disruption affected over 18,000 users.
In the past weeks, the group has claimed responsibility for attacks on American social news aggregation, Reddit, as well as noncommercial platform, Archive of Our Own.
The group also took credit in attacking US's SWIFT payment system in collaboration with KillNet to protest the West’s financial and military support of Ukraine in the war with Russia.
International cybersecurity experts have, however, claimed that the group's origin can be traced to Russia and not Sudan. The claims have, however, not been verified.
Anonymous Beef with Kenya
Anonymous Sudan, which communicates on a Telegram channel, have claimed that the recent attacks are due to the Kenyan government's alleged interference in Sudan's affairs.
The attacks came days after Sudan Armed Forces General Yasser Al-Atta accused President William Ruto of funding their adversary, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in a war for the control of Sudan.
The general, in a video that went viral, dared Ruto to a war. What followed was a series of website downtimes and service disruptions.
Who is Backing the Group
In what looks like an escalation of the conflict between Kenya and one of the warring factions, the group looks like it's enjoying the backing of some Sudanese figures.
However, it is hard to say whether the group is being funded by Al-Atta. Their attacks for sure will leave a trail of financial losses and inconveniences to millions of Kenyans.
