Elon Musk has confirmed a massive cyberattack on his social media platform, X (once Twitter), causing widespread technical problems. Reportedly, it was a well-coordinated effort from a group or country, most likely Ukraine.
A recent disruption to the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, has sparked controversy regarding its cause and origin. The platform experienced extended downtime, prompting its owner, Elon Musk, to claim that a significant cyberattack was responsible.
The attack began on March 10 and continued until 9:30 a.m. ET. Users reported issues accessing X at around 5:30 a.m. ET, followed by another outage at 9:30 a.m. ET and a third significant spike in error complaints around 11 a.m. ET. Some speculate that the X outage may have been caused by a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.
In an X post, Musk publicly confirmed that the disruption was the result of a coordinated effort to disable the X system. He further specified that the attack’s originating internet protocol addresses were traced to the region of Ukraine.
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏,” Musk wrote, adding that “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …”
The service interruptions were not uniform, with users experiencing intermittent outages. These periods of inaccessibility would last for approximately three-quarters of an hour, followed by brief periods of restored service, before the platform would once again become unresponsive. One particularly lengthy outage lasted several hours.
Musk indicated (video) that the scale of the attack suggested a substantial level of organization and resources. He proposed that either a large, coordinated group or potentially a state-sponsored entity was involved.
The claim that the attack originated from Ukraine has drawn scrutiny. Some have suggested that Musk’s political affiliations may have influenced his assessment. Given his alignment with a prominent political figure, and the current political climate surrounding aid to Ukraine, it is believed that the platform could become a target.
Musk also indicated that internal investigations were underway to determine the specifics of the attack. He stated that the platform’s security teams were attempting to trace the attack’s origins and methods.
Musk’s accusations come as President Trump’s administration has been critical of the Ukrainian government and the country’s response to the Russian invasion. This is a developing story, we will update this article as soon as there is any update regarding the investigation.
Determining the true cause of a cyberattack can be a complex and time-consuming process. It may take days, or even weeks, to gather sufficient evidence to identify the source and nature of the disruption definitively.
DarkStorm Team Claims Responsibility
While Musk blames Ukraine, the DarkStorm Team has claimed responsibility for the attack on X. Dark Storm Team is a group active since 2023, known for its pro-Palestinian stance and alleged ties to Russia. The group has targeted entities in Israel, NATO countries, and Western companies, often employing DDoS attacks to disrupt services.
Casey Ellis, Founder at Bugcrowd, a San Francisco, Calif.-based leader in crowdsourced cybersecurity commented on the issue stating, “It’s difficult to say with incomplete information, and in the early stages of things, but between the sustained nature of the outage and Dark StormTeam taking credit for it on Telegram, this does appear to be a legitimate cyberattack on X.”
