The Sylhet Gang collective (also SG) has been involved in numerous cyber offensives such as the famous #OpIsrael and the even more famous #OpFreePalestine. It has very clear pro-Palestinian connotations and collaborates with numerous cyber gangs such as the Mr. Hamza collective.
Attacks and methodologies
Between 2023 and 2024, the Sylhet Gang collective participated in coordinated defacement campaigns, often in synchrony with collectives such as Mysterious Team Bangladesh, Team Insane PK, and Cyber Toufan. Some attributed or claimed attacks include targeting smaller government sites, universities, and local authorities in Western countries and Israel. In Europe, their attacks were several, including one on British Prime Minister Sunak’s personal website. Attacks against the Cyprus police and even UNICEF were also claimed.
There is a not insignificant aspect of collaboration with the KillNet 2.0 collective to which it appears to have sworn allegiance. Among the preferred attack techniques are defacement, SQL injection, but there have also been cases of credential dumping. Sylhet Gang also uses the Telegram messaging platform to communicate and coordinate with other hacker collectives. As explained above, this collective mostly acts in collaboration with other actors, including Noname57(16), with whom a collaboration was officially signed in October 2024.
Curiosity about the name
The name Sylhet Gang is not accidental: Sylhet is the name of a city and region in north-eastern Bangladesh, from where the group’s founding nucleus presumably originated. It is common to find a mixture of South Asian cultural references and pan-Islamic political messages in their posts.
The city of Sylhet is famous for its very active diaspora, particularly in the UK, so the choice of this city was not accidental. While maintaining an original identity, it also includes an openness towards the West reinforced by the choice of the word gang. This word is to be understood with the meaning of ‘criminal brotherhood’ and therefore a gang bent on acts of rebellion.
