The hacker group known as “Anonymous Sudan” has demanded a ransom of $3 million from Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to cease their ongoing distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the airline’s websites.
Despite initially claiming political motives, the group seems to have resorted to extortion tactics for financial gain. Anonymous Sudan issued a ransom note on their Telegram channel, stating that SAS had been paralyzed for over five days and warned of further disruption if no action was taken.
SAS has responded to user complaints on social media, acknowledging the website issue and assuring customers that they are working to resolve it promptly. However, the demands of Anonymous Sudan continue to escalate, raising the initial ransom from $3,500 to an astounding $3 million.
The group threatened to persist in their attacks, vowing negative consequences for SAS if their demands were not met.
Anonymous Sudan had initially targeted SAS in February, resulting in website downtime and the exposure of user data. The group attributed their actions to the burning of a Quran during protests in Stockholm. Subsequently, they carried out cyberattacks on various targets, including Sweden’s national television broadcaster, German airports, Danish hospitals, Israeli banks, news websites, and even a missile warning system.
Researchers suspect that Anonymous Sudan, associated with a Pro-Russian state-sponsored hacker group called Killnet, was likely created as part of a Russian information operation aimed at complicating Sweden’s NATO application.
While primarily employing unsophisticated DDoS attacks, Anonymous Sudan’s actions have serious implications as they target critical infrastructures like hospitals, airports, banks, and government institutions.
The group’s motivations appear to include both financial gain, as indicated by attempts to sell stolen data from Air France, and political objectives related to geopolitical conflicts.
