Alabama Under DDoS Cyberattack by Russian-Backed Hacktivists

The hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan claims credit for a cyberattack that disrupted Alabama state government earlier this week.

Dark Reading Staff, Dark Reading

March 14, 2024

1 Min Read
Historic postcard from Alabama
Source: Illustrated History via Alamy Stock Photo

Alabama has been grappling with network disruptions, following cyber incidents targeting both state and city governments, and days later, they still appear to be struggling to recover.

Alabama's governor, Kay Ivey, confirmed that a cyberattack on state systems began March 12, but added that neither networks nor system data were compromised, according to reports.

Similarly, on March 6, the city of Birmingham reported a network issue impacted city systems, which included blocking law enforcement's ability to verify stolen vehicles or whether a driver has a warrant out for their arrest, AL.com reported.

Birmingham officials did not respond to Dark Reading's request for additional information on the cyber incident.

In addition, the Alabama state government got hit by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack by Anonymous Sudan, an established hacktivist group backed by the Russian government, according to CNN.

"We understand that the disruptions were initially widespread across state services, and those effects have diminished throughout the day as we have worked with our vendors to counter the denial-of-service attack," Jeremy Ward, an Alabama Office of Information on Technology spokesman, told CNN.

Previously, Anonymous Sudan launched DDoS attacks against Israel, Europe, and the messaging app Telegram.

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Dark Reading Staff

Dark Reading

Dark Reading is a leading cybersecurity media site.

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