2 Sudanese brothers charged with running cyberattack-for-hire gang

A federal grand jury unsealed an indictment against two Sudanese brothers Wednesday, charging them with running "Anonymous Sudan," one of the most prolific cyberattack-for-hire gangs of all time and allegedly behind tens of thousands of attacks. 

Federal prosecutors accused Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, of carrying out 35,000 denial-of-service attacks against hundreds of organizations in just one year, taking down websites and other networks as part of an ideologically motivated extortion scheme affecting thousands of customers. 

According to prosecutors, the pair targeted a long list of high-profile victims worldwide and across the U.S., including Microsoft, ChatGPT, PayPal, X, Yahoo, airports, the Pentagon, the Department of Justice, Alabama's state government, as well as at least one hospital: Cedars-Sinai in the Los Angeles area.