If you use Microsoft’s online services such as Outlook and OneDrive, you may have experienced some disruptions in early June. Microsoft has now confirmed that these disruptions were caused by cyberattacks from a group called **Anonymous Sudan**  .

What is Anonymous Sudan?

Anonymous Sudan is a new hacker group that emerged in 2023 and claimed to target countries that interfere in Sudanese politics and promote anti-Muslim policies. However, some security experts suspect that group is actually an offshoot of **Killnet**. This pro-Russian hacking group has been launching distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the government and other websites of Ukraine’s allies .

What is a DDoS attack?

A DDoS attack is a type of cyberattack that aims to overwhelm a website or a service with a large amount of junk traffic from multiple sources, making it slow down or crash. A DDoS attack does not usually access or compromise any data, but it can disrupt normal functioning of target and cause inconvenience or damage to its users.

How did Anonymous Sudan attack Microsoft?

According to Microsoft, Anonymous Sudan used rented cloud infrastructure and virtual private networks (VPNs) to send DDoS traffic to Microsoft’s servers from different locations around the world. attacks mainly affected Microsoft’s flagship office suite and cloud computing platforms, including Outlook and OneDrive. Microsoft said that it detected and mitigated attacks quickly, but some users may have experienced temporary unavailability of some services.

How many users were affected by attacks?

Microsoft did not disclose how many customers were affected by attacks or how long they lasted. However, some reports suggest that attacks occurred on June 5 and affected about 18,000 users. Microsoft also said that there was no evidence that any customer data was accessed or compromised by attackers.

What is Microsoft doing to prevent future attacks?

Microsoft said it continuously monitors and improves its defences against DDoS attacks and works with law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute attackers. Microsoft also advised its customers to use multi-factor authentication and strong passwords to protect their accounts and data.

12:06 AM Breaking News