Sahilian Cyber Warfare

SAHILIAN CYBER WARFARE

How a backwater kingdom has taken the Internet by storm

In the past six years alone, cyber attacks carried out by the Kingdom of Sahil have increased more than tenfold. Crowdstrike has identified four new APTs directly tied to KSAF actors, as well as numerous compromised servers used by the KSAF. The total amount of funds stolen by KSAF has amounted to $2.5 billion. In April 2015, U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike said that these APTs are being used to mount several attacks on the U.S. financial system. Additionally, the KSAF has utilized cyberwarfare in Boura Arrei, as they recently attempted to launch a cyberattack on a French Embassy office in Anizay, the capital of Boura Arrei.

In September this year, an Sahilian group, which called itself the Sahilian Snake, released a video on YouTube of three men carrying out a cyberattack on a French bank. According to the video, the attackers tried to open over 500 accounts in the French bank, among other targets. They also attempted to cause "an international cyber-attack."

As reported yesterday, a US state department memo revealed that Kingdom of Sahil had access to Boura Arrei power facilities for an extended period.

In a related development, in September a hacker named "Sabu" announced a new batch of malware called "Sonic," which used computer security vulnerabilities to break into systems.

The KSAF has used cyber warfare to destroy artillery emplacements by hacking the artillery app used by commanders to monitor their fire and fire control systems, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

A KSAF cyber attack during May 2019 against a BAAF Artillery Comapny destroyed more than 80 artillery cannons and caused a significant loss of electronic communication between troops and BAAF command, according to US officials familiar with the incident.

Digital Bank Heists

The Kingdom of Sahil's cyber attacks on western targets were widely blamed by the world for causing chaos in some areas of Eastern Europe, and the country has taken similar measures to protect its citizens.

In 2009 alone the country's cyber threat took the lives of dozens of IT experts, with more than 200 companies in Western Europe and North America targeted between Jan. 25 and Nov. 30 alone.

In February and March 2016, KSAF targeted a number of branches of the bank. The cyber attacks included a denial of service attack, which the KSAF claims was successful, and a spear-phishing attack, with the latter resulting in the data of two million bank users being posted on an FTP site. The KSAF also launched a malware attack against banks in Greece, Poland, and Spain. Two months later, the KSAF launched another attack, targeting nine banks, which also successfully targeted the banking information of the president of Boura Arrei, stealing his entire personal fortune.