May 29 — On Friday night, multiple Senegalese government websites went offline due to a series of Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. The attacks have occurred at a time of heightened political tensions in the country. On the same day as the cyber attacks, one person was killed in physical clashes.

In a statement, government spokesperson Abdou Karim Fofana said that staff were making every effort to bring sites back online. As of Saturday evening, the presidency’s site resumed functionality, but other official websites still appeared defunct.

Behind-the-scenes

A little-known group of cyber criminals, known as “Mysterious Team,” has claimed responsibility for the cyber attacks. According to the group’s Twitter account, the group’s members are “cyber warriors from Bangladesh.”

The political connection or strife between Bangladesh and Senegalese authorities is not readily apparent. Mysterious Team has said that it is “…working for justice for Senegal innocent peoples.” Across the past two years, Senegal has been shaken by sometimes violent protests surrounding a range of issues.

Previously, Mysterious Team has carried out cyber attacks against the Ethiopian Health Ministry and Indian Media.

Anonymous

It’s worth noting that this story is still breaking and to that effect, divergent media sources have conflicting information pertaining to the origins of the hackers. The Mysterious Team may have a connection to the Anonymous cyber criminal hacktivism group, but the details remain fuzzy.

This CyberTalk.org story was based on reporting from Reuters. For insights regarding how to protect your organization from DDoS attacks, please click here. To receive more cutting-edge cyber security news, best practices and analyses, please subscribe to the CyberTalk.org newsletter.