NETSCOUT identifies Keymous+ as major cyber threat in North Africa

NETSCOUT Report: Keymous+ Cyber Threat Targets North Africa with DDoS Attacks
NETSCOUT identifies Keymous+ as major cyber threat in North Africa, launching 249 DDoS attacks across 15 countries and 21 sectors using sophisticated methods.
NETSCOUT’s latest threat intelligence report reveals Keymous+ as a significant cyber threat actor targeting North Africa and the Middle East. The group has conducted hundreds of DDoS attacks affecting government, finance, and telecommunications sectors, leveraging advanced techniques and infrastructure.

Keymous+ Emerges as Major Cyber Threat in North Africa

NETSCOUT, a global leader in cybersecurity and DDoS protection solutions, has identified Keymous+ as a significant cyber threat actor targeting nations across North Africa and the Middle East. According to the company’s latest global threat intelligence report, this group represents one of the most active and sophisticated threats in the region, requiring immediate attention from organizations across multiple sectors.

Scope and Scale of Keymous+ DDoS Attacks

The DDoS attacks orchestrated by Keymous+ have reached alarming proportions, with 249 separate attacks recorded across 15 countries and 21 different sectors. Morocco and Sudan have been identified as among the most affected nations, facing sustained campaigns that threaten critical infrastructure and economic stability. The group’s operations demonstrate strategic planning and coordination, often timing attacks during peak business hours to maximize disruption and economic impact.

Industries Most Vulnerable to Keymous+ Targeting

Keymous+ has shown particular interest in sectors critical to national security and economic stability. Government agencies face the highest risk, followed by hospitality and tourism, transportation and logistics, financial services, and telecommunications organizations. This broad targeting pattern suggests the group aims to disrupt essential services and create widespread economic impact across the region, similar to concerns raised in global economic stability reports.

Evolving Attack Tactics and Methodologies

Bryan Hamman, NETSCOUT’s regional director for Africa, emphasizes the group’s evolving approach: “Keymous+ is leveraging DDoS-for-hire services and compromised devices, making their attacks more accessible and harder to defend against.” The threat actor employs multiple attack vectors, including reflection and amplification attacks using protocols such as chargen, CLDAP, DNS, memcached, NTP, NetBIOS, rpcbind, SNMP, L2TP and WS-DD, as well as direct floods over DNS query, UDP and TCP protocols.

Infrastructure and Attack Scale Analysis

Each Keymous+ attack draws on an average of more than 42,000 unique source IPs, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands distributed across diverse infrastructure. This includes Tor exit nodes, public cloud instances, VPNs, access networks, compromised consumer and IoT devices, proxies and direct-path traffic from infected hosts. Peak observed bandwidth reached 11.8Gbps for individual attacks and 44Gbps for coordinated campaigns, demonstrating significant technical capability and resource allocation.

Collaboration and Coordination with Other Threat Groups

NETSCOUT’s report highlights a concerning development: a public collaboration between Keymous+ and DDoS54 announced on April 12, 2025. This partnership further amplifies the threat’s scale and coordination capabilities, creating a more formidable challenge for cybersecurity defenses. Such collaborations mirror trends seen in other sectors where strategic partnerships drive growth, as noted in technology investment analyses and market predictions.

Economic and Security Implications for African Nations

The rising frequency and sophistication of these attacks highlight the urgent need for enhanced cybersecurity resilience across the continent. As Hamman warns, “The broad, opportunistic targeting of Keymous+ suggests expanding operations, requiring organizations to prepare for sustained, high-scale attacks.” This threat comes at a time when global economic pressures are already affecting markets worldwide, making cybersecurity investments increasingly critical for economic stability.

NETSCOUT’s Comprehensive Threat Monitoring Capabilities

NETSCOUT maps the DDoS landscape through passive, active and reactive vantage points, providing unparalleled visibility into global attack trends. The company protects two-thirds of the routed IPv4 space, securing network edges that carried global peak traffic of over 800 Tbps in the first half of 2025. This extensive monitoring capability allows NETSCOUT to track tens of thousands of daily DDoS attacks by monitoring multiple botnets and DDoS-for-hire services that leverage millions of abused or compromised devices, similar to the comprehensive approaches seen in financial security initiatives.

Protective Measures and Future Outlook

Organizations across North Africa and the Middle East must implement robust DDoS protection strategies that address the full spectrum of attack vectors employed by groups like Keymous+. This includes deploying comprehensive security solutions that can detect and mitigate attacks across multiple protocols and infrastructure types. As threat actors continue to evolve their tactics and form alliances, the cybersecurity community must respond with equally sophisticated defense mechanisms and international cooperation to protect critical infrastructure and maintain economic stability in the region.