Nairobi News

Details of the Anonymous Sudan company that hacked the Kenyan Government websites on Thursday, July 27, 2023, can now be revealed.

The company has been targeting government websites in other countries, including Israel, United Arab Emirates, France and Australia.

In Kenya, the hackers affected most government websites which included; e-citizen, mobile banking, making transactions on Mpesa and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA’s) website.

ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has already admitted that the government’s online services were indeed hacked.

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The CS, however, said that no data was lost during the attack and that the government was working around the clock to resolve the problem and secure the platform.

Anonymous Sudan, is a collective of hackers who, since January 2023 been claiming responsibility for several Distributed-Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on critical online services in Kenya.

These cyberattacks have affected the websites of government agencies, newspapers, and more. While some date back to a few days ago, some are quite recent with more promised to occur.

Anonymous Sudan says it is conducting hacks in Africa on behalf of oppressed Muslims globally.

From Technext’s investigation, which included joining the group’s Telegram channel, the reason for these attacks stems from the ongoing war of words between Kenya and Sudan.

Worried about Sudan’s 100+ days of conflict, Kenyan President William Ruto recently proposed that East African troops offer peacekeeping support.

Already, the Nation has established that the United States of America (USA) is trying to broker a peace deal between the warring teams.

Cybercrime researchers have also said that there was a high likelihood that the hackers were operating from Russia.

In a research report conducted by Truesec and Baffin Bay Networks, the group has been described as a loose collective for online activism and protests that emerged in the early 2000s.

“Anonymous uses hacking, DDOs attacks and other forms of digital activism to promote social and political change. Its members define anonymous as a set of campaigns where campaign is a composition of individuals, who for a period of time, share common set of values and goals and publicly claim to be anonymous,” the research report reads in part.

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It says that over the years, the company has been attacking various government websites in what is seen as a pure political and anti-western campaigns.

For instance, on January 21, 2023, the Danish-Swedish right-wing activist Rasmus Paludan burnt a Quran outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Two days later, Islamic members announced the anonymous online campaign against the Swedish Government for burning the Quran.

The anonymous Sudan started its campaigns when former Sudan President Omar al-Bashir was kicked out of office.

In another report by Mattias Wahlen company identified as Wahlen led Truesec Investigation, the group is a frontier for Russia. Wahlen is a threat intelligence expert.

In the report, he said that the main agenda of the starting of the group was to make it an advocate for closer cooperation between Russia and the Islamic world.

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“Anonymous Sudan is a Russian information operation that aims to use its Islamic credentials to be an advocate for closer cooperation between Russia and the Islamic world – always claiming that Russia is the Muslims’ friend,” said Mr Wåhlén.

In June 2023, Microsoft revealed that a cyberattack had caused its email service to collapse and denied over 18,000 users access. It accused Anonymous Sudan of being behind the attack.

It is believed that apart from attacking the internet and government websites. Anonymous Sudan is thought to have conducted several notable cyberattacks in Australia, Scandinavia and Israel.

Anonymous Sudan has also claimed responsibility for attacks that have been conducted in hospitals, banks and airports in Denmark and Sweden.

The group is also believed to have hacked Israel’s rocket defence systems, banks and news sites.

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