Hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Israel’s largest mobile service provider, Pelephone, resulting in disruptions to its network and digital infrastructure. The group declared the attack as part of its ongoing campaign against prominent Israeli targets, specifically mentioning the impact on Pelephone’s critical systems, including SCADA and other infrastructure-based endpoints. Anonymous Sudan asserted that the collateral damage would be significant, and it vowed to continue its cyberattacks on Israel as long as it perceives a genocidal campaign on Gaza. Concurrently, the Gaza Strip faced a telecom blackout for the tenth time since the conflict with Israel began over three months ago, severely limiting communication for residents.
The cyberattack on Pelephone was characterized by Anonymous Sudan as a devastating assault on one of Israel’s major mobile network operators and telecommunications companies. The hacktivist group claimed to have practically taken Pelephone’s entire digital infrastructure offline through a sophisticated cyberattack. The attack announcement included a warning about potential collateral damage due to Pelephone hosting critical systems, indicating a broader impact beyond the immediate disruption of mobile services. Anonymous Sudan’s motives were rooted in opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, and the group expressed its intention to persist with cyberattacks as long as it perceived a genocidal campaign against Gaza.
Hours before the cyberattack, internet monitoring non-profit NetBlocks reported a 24-hour telecom blackout in the Gaza Strip. The blackout, the tenth such incident since the conflict’s onset, severely limited residents’ communication abilities. NetBlocks highlighted the continuous decline in connectivity in the region and noted that the blackout affected the few remaining networks. Anonymous Sudan’s claim of responsibility for the cyberattack on Pelephone underscores the group’s active involvement in geopolitical hacktivist issues beyond its stated region, aligning with other cybercriminal groups to target entities in the West. The group has a history of successful DDoS attacks on high-profile targets and has collaborated with the KillNet gang in cyber operations targeting critical infrastructure sites in Israel.
