- the first time the US has threatened a cybercriminal with such a sentence........

 From "Red Color" to Iron Dome: Indictment against those responsible for the October 7 cyber attack

The New York Times reports that the brothers Ahmed and Alaa Omar were arrested and accused of disabling critical warning systems in Israel during the Hamas attack. The group they founded, "Anonymous Sudan", is defined by the American prosecution as "the most dangerous cyber group in the world". For the first time in history, the prosecution is demanding a life sentence for cyber crimes

The US Department of Justice filed an indictment today (Friday) against two Sudanese brothers, Ahmed (22) and Alaa (27) Omar for conducting serious cyber attacks that hit Israel during the October 7 Hamas attack.

According to the indictment submitted to the California court, the two led the cyber group "Anonymous Sudan", defined by the US Attorney's office as "the most dangerous cyber group in the world". The attacks carried out by them in the early hours of that fatal morning disabled life-saving alert systems such as the Red Color and Horn apps, which are used to receive real-time alerts on rocket attacks and terrorist infiltrations.

Systems remain down for critical periods of time

As mentioned, the cyber attack was carried out at the same time as the Hamas attack on the southern settlements, and lasted until October 9, when the systems remained down for critical periods of time. The US Department of Justice stated that the attack was aimed, among other things, at the Iron Dome system, with the aim of disabling it at the moment of the attack, thus damaging Israel's defense capability.

"We are currently targeting several critical endpoints in Israel's alert systems," Anonymous Sudan posted on its Telegram channel on October 7 a year ago. "Respect for the Palestinian resistance - we are with you."

At the same time, the brothers are accused of attacks on the website of the "Jerusalem Post" newspaper, which was shut down for 50 consecutive hours, and of deleting content from the website. The website reported at the time that "multiple cyber attacks caused our website to crash". Additional attacks were also aimed at vital sites such as that of the Electric Company and the Mekorot company.

Serious attacks that started even before the war and have continued ever since

Moreover, according to the indictment, the group's attacks against Israel began even before October 7. Earlier that year, "Anonymous Sudan" also attacked service providers of the IDF and the Supreme Court. In May 2023, the group first attacked Israel's Iron Dome defense system during rocket launches from Gaza. In that attack, 16 rockets managed to get through the Israeli defenses - a larger number than usual.

In one of their Telegram messages from that time, "Anonymous Sudan" warned that in the future it would coordinate its attacks with those of Hamas. "Now we are playing with Israel again," the group wrote, "the really strong attacks will come when there is a rocket attack from Gaza." However, according to the indictment there is no indication that the brothers knew or coordinated with Hamas members the attack on October 7 last year.

In February of that year (almost a year before the war began), the brothers shut down critical computer systems belonging to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, prompting emergency services to temporarily divert patients to other hospitals, according to the indictment. The brothers claimed that the attack was revenge for Israel's bombing of hospitals in Gaza.

In April of that year, the group also attacked the websites of Israeli universities, which crashed for a few hours. The attack method was similar to the one described in the American indictment - a denial of service (DDoS) attack that causes websites to crash by flooding their servers with commands. The group then wrote on its Telegram channel that "the education sector in Israel collapsed because of what they (the Israelis) did in Palestine."

The brothers were arrested in an unknown country and have since been under investigation by the FBI while awaiting the continuation of the proceedings against them. Currently it is not clear when they will be extradited to the US - if at all. According to the indictment, if convicted, Ahmed Omar faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, and his brother Alaa Omar may be sent to five years in prison.

According to the lawsuit, the two are accused, among other things, of trying to disrupt the lives of millions of Israelis during an emergency, while harming essential services that can affect civilians during combat. The indictment also describes in detail actions they carried out against the United States, Denmark, France and Sweden. According to the lawsuit, their actions were so harmful and life-threatening that the prosecution decided to demand a maximum sentence of life imprisonment - the first time the US has threatened a cybercriminal with such a sentence.

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