Cyber Incident Victim: Salt Lake City Police
Date:
Mar 2016
Location:
United States of America
Summary
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeted multiple Salt Lake City entities, including police and airport websites, conducted by the New World Hackers group in protest of a police shooting involving a critically injured 17-year-old Somali refugee. The attackers explicitly linked their actions to demands for justice and the arresting of involved officers, mirroring previous hacktivist responses to police shootings in the United States. Additional targets included First Utah Bank and the Downtown Alliance, with the bank's website remaining offline at the time of reporting while other services were restored. The group, known for prior attacks on high-profile targets like the BBC and Donald Trump's campaign, framed the incident as part of ongoing retaliation against perceived police brutality.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On March 12-13, 2016, the New World Hackers (NWH) group executed distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Salt Lake City entities, including the official police department website, the airport site, First Utah Bank, and the Downtown Alliance. The attacks occurred in response to the police shooting of 17-year-old Somali refugee Abdi Mohamed, who sustained critical injuries after being shot three times in the torso during an altercation in downtown Salt Lake City. NWH explicitly stated their motive was to demand justice for Mohamed and the arrest of the involved officer, threatening continued attacks until their demands were met. The group, known for previous high-profile attacks on Xbox Live, BBC News, HSBC UK, and Donald Trump's campaign website, leveraged their technical capabilities to disrupt services. By the article's publication date on March 14, all targeted sites except First Utah Bank had been restored to operational status, indicating successful mitigation efforts by the affected organizations.
The incident followed a pattern of hacktivist responses to police shootings, drawing parallels to Anonymous' prior cyber campaigns protesting the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson and a separate Cincinnati shooting victim. Mohamed's shooting occurred when officers responded to a physical altercation where witnesses reported he had picked up a broken broomstick prior to police arrival. While the exact circumstances prompting the officers to fire remained unclear, the teenager's critical condition and refugee background amplified public attention. The attacks temporarily disrupted public-facing digital services of law enforcement, transportation, and financial institutions, though no data breaches or permanent damage were reported. This marked another instance where hacktivist groups weaponized DDoS tactics to amplify social justice grievances against law enforcement agencies.