While entities should be concerned about the risk of hacks or attempts to exfiltrate or encrypt data, the risk of a DDoS attack should not be ignored. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks can totally disrupt an entity’s website or ability to function. Huge botnets enable serious power slamming websites and preventing them from functioning. Security Affairs reports on one case involving DDoS attacks:
The US Justice Department charged two Sudanese brothers (Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27) with operating and controlling the cybercrime collective Anonymous Sudan that launched tens of thousands of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against critical infrastructure, corporate networks, and government agencies in the United States and around the world.
The group’s victims include ChatGPT, Telegram, Microsoft, X, the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the FBI, the State Department, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and government websites for the state of Alabama.
The collective Anonymous Sudan has been active since January 2023, it claims to target any country that is against Sudan. However, some security researchers believe Anonymous Sudan is a sub-group of the pro-Russian threat group Killnet.
Read more at SecurityAffairs.
Attempting to Cause Bodily Harm or Death
One unusual aspect of this case is that this may be the first time or one of the first times defendants have been described as trying to kill people or causing bodily injury or death to others as a consequence of a DDoS attack. From the indictment, some of the objects of the conspiracy:
b. to cause the modification, impairment, and potential modification or impairment of the medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, and care of one or more individuals, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A), (c)(4)(B)(i),
(c)(4)(A)(i)(II);c. to cause physical injury to any person, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A), (c)(4)(B)(i),(c)(4)(A)(i)(III);
d. to cause a threat to public health or safety, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A),(c)(4)(B)(i), (c)(4)(A)(i)(IV);
[…]
g. to attempt to cause and knowingly and recklessly cause serious bodily injury, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A), (c)(4)(E);
h. to attempt to cause and knowingly and recklessly cause death, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030(a)(5)(A), (c)(4)(F); and
