Cyber Incident Victim: Saudi Ombudsman's Office
Date:
Jan 2016
Location:
Saudi Arabia
Summary
Anonymous conducted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against multiple Saudi Arabian government websites, including the Ombudsman’s Office, Ministry of Defense, Education, Finance, and Customs Service, under operations #OpSaudi and #OpNimr. The hacktivist group claimed retaliation for the execution of Shia cleric Nimr Al-Nimr and 46 others on terrorism charges, mirroring prior protests against the government's treatment of dissidents. The attacks temporarily disrupted critical online services, with some websites restored shortly after the incident while others remained offline for an extended period. Anonymous publicly listed the targeted domains via social media channels as part of its campaign against Saudi authorities.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On January 2, 2016, the Saudi Arabian government announced the execution of 47 prisoners on terrorism charges, including prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al Nimr, who had been arrested in 2012 at age 17 for alleged anti-government protest activities. In response, the hacktivist collective Anonymous launched coordinated cyber attacks under the campaigns #OpSaudi and #OpNimr, targeting multiple high-profile Saudi government websites beginning on or before January 5, 2016. The attacks disrupted the online operations of critical government agencies, including the Ministry of Defense, Royal Air Force, Ministry of Education, Saudi Press Association, Customs Service, Ministry of Finance, General Passports Service, and the Saudi Ombudsmans Office. Anonymous publicly claimed responsibility through social media channels, sharing lists of targeted websites via Twitter posts that included defacement notices and operational details. The Ministry of Defense's website had been subjected to prior attacks two days earlier and remained offline at the time of these subsequent incidents.
The distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks rendered several government portals inaccessible, with varying recovery times observed across affected entities. By January 5, some services like the Saudi Press Association had been restored, while others including the Ministry of Defense and Ombudsmans Office remained nonfunctional. The disruptions impaired public access to governmental services and information dissemination channels during the outage periods. No official statements from Saudi authorities regarding incident response or forensic investigations were documented in the source material. The attacks represented an escalation of Anonymous' activities against Saudi infrastructure, building upon previous operations in September 2015 that protested the potential crucifixion sentence of Mohammed al-Nimr. Operational continuity challenges were evidenced by the prolonged downtime of higher-value targets like the Defense Ministry, contrasting with quicker recoveries among other agencies.