Creators of one of the biggest DDoS series to date: brother duo in court

Two brothers from Sudan are said to be responsible for thousands of DDoS attacks on tech giants and critical infrastructure. The US justice system has now brought charges. The alleged perpetrators even offered their services commercially and bragged about their “successes”.

Dangerous cyber attacks are shaking the tech world

Two men from Sudan are at the center of one of the largest series of DDoS attacks in recent memory. According to an indictment by the US justice authorities, the brothers, aged 22 and 27, are said to be responsible for over 35,000 distributed denial of service attacks. The attacks targeted some of the world’s most prominent technology companies and critical infrastructure.

The victims of the massive DDoS campaign included Microsoft, OpenAI, PayPal, Netflix, Reddit and Cloudflare. Government agencies such as the US Department of Justice, the Department of Defense and the FBI were also attacked. Particularly worrying: Even hospitals like the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles were targeted by the attackers.

Anonymous Sudan: The perpetrators behind the attacks

How Ars Technica Reportedly, the accused operated under the name “Anonymous Sudan”. They deployed a cloud-based DDoS tool to disable their targets or significantly degrade their performance. Some of the attacks were so severe that they could put entire server farms out of action for days. After successful attacks, the suspected perpetrators often bragged about their “successes” in a Telegram channel.

“Anonymous Sudan sought to cause maximum damage and destruction against governments and companies worldwide through tens of thousands of cyberattacks. This group’s attacks were cold-blooded and brazen – the defendants even went so far as to attack hospitals that were providing urgently needed treatment to patients.” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada

The brothers also offered their DDoS services commercially. For prices ranging from $100 to $1,700, customers could gain access to the attack software. One package that investigators say was advertised in February 2024 promised “botnet performance of up to 2TB” for $300 per day.

Threatening for life

Investigators were able to seize key parts of Anonymous Sudan’s infrastructure in March 2024, including servers and source code. One of the brothers faces a possible life sentence because, among other things, he is accused of “knowingly and negligently causing death.” The other defendant faces up to five years in prison.