A week after attacking Kenyan companies, notorious Russian hackavist, Anonymous Sudan is claiming responsibility for cyberattacks on MTN Nigeria and Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
The attack came immediately after Nigeria’s proposed military intervention in Niger. On July 26, a military group led a coup and removed Niger President Mohamed Bazoum from power.
In response, West Africa’s regional bloc, ECOWAS, led by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, asked the coup plotters to reinstate Bazoum within the week—a deadline that expires on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Nigeria cut power supply to Niger, making it the first sanction against the country, and ECOWAS says it is considering military action to restore constitutional order.
After Nigeria’s moves, the hacktivist company issued warnings to Nigerian companies to brace for repercussions by August 2.
While MTN’s confirmation of the cyberattack is pending, NITDA confirmed in a press release that Anonymous Sudan targeted its digital infrastructure and advised Nigerian financial service providers, government bodies, and telcos to prepare for a series of attacks.
Anonymous Sudan attacked digital services in Kenya because the country questioned the sovereignty of the Sudanese government in an internal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In a series of Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, Kenya’s biggest telco, Safaricom, and Kenya Power—the national utility company, were hit, including Kenyan media, hospitals, universities, and businesses.
Furthermore, the group demanded an official apology from the Kenyan government and a ransom payment of $200,000 worth of bitcoin to cease their attacks.
The cyberattacks carried out by the group in Kenya have prompted Nigeria’s Computer Emergency Response Team to issue recommendations for averting a similar impact within Nigeria. Some of the guidelines include deploying firewalls and DDoS protection services, using CAPTCHA tests on websites, and limiting network broadcasting.
