A federal grand jury indicted two Sudanese nationals for cyberattacks including a 2024 hack of Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai.
Ahmed Salah Yousif Omer, 22, and Alaa Salah Yusuuf Omer, 27, were charged with one count each of conspiracy to damage protected computers, the U.S. Justice Department said Oct. 16. Ahmed Salah was initially charged with three counts of damaging protected computers. The men were allegedly members of cybercriminal group Anonymous Sudan.
"Anonymous Sudan sought to maximize havoc and destruction against governments and businesses around the world by perpetrating tens of thousands of cyberattacks," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in an Oct. 16 statement. "This group's attacks were callous and brazen — the defendants went so far as to attack hospitals providing emergency and urgent care to patients."
Among their alleged crimes was a February cyberattack on Cedars-Sinai that caused emergency department patients to be diverted to other hospitals for about eight hours. The men wanted to harm U.S. patients in response to Israel's bombing of hospitals in Gaza, according to the indictment.
Ahmed Salah faces up to life in federal prison, while Alaa Salah could be sentenced to a maximum of five years.