On Tuesday, billionaire Elon Musk, who also heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), revealed that his social media platform X—previously known as Twitter—endured a significant cyberattack, which he claims originated from the “Ukraine area.” The attack led to widespread outages on Monday, with the platform repeatedly going offline, briefly restoring service, and then crashing again throughout the day.
Speaking with Fox News host Larry Kudlow, Musk addressed the incident, saying, “We're not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.” When pressed about the platform's current status, he offered a succinct update: “It's up.”
The pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm Team has since claimed responsibility for the assault, announcing their involvement via a public Telegram channel. Known for targeting entities and nations supportive of Israel's military operations in Gaza—sparked by Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023—the group's actions align with their broader agenda. Their claim points to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, a method that overwhelms servers with junk traffic to disrupt access.
Musk had earlier hinted at the severity of the incident in a post on X, writing, “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.” However, he refrained from elaborating on what constituted “a lot of resources,” a vagueness that drew skepticism from cybersecurity experts. Many pointed out that DDoS attacks, while disruptive, don’t necessarily require vast infrastructure and have historically been executed by small teams or even lone actors.
The outages hit hard, with Downdetector logging a peak of 39,021 affected users in the US by 10 a.m. ET on Monday. By 5 p.m., reports of disruptions had dwindled to approximately 1,500. A source from the internet infrastructure sector, speaking anonymously to Reuters, confirmed that X faced multiple waves of DDoS attacks starting at 9:45 UTC. These assaults, though not technically complex, flooded the platform’s servers with rogue data, knocking it offline repeatedly.
The timing of the attack coincides with Musk’s ongoing vocal criticism of Ukraine’s military efforts against Russia. As an adviser to US President Donald Trump, Musk has recently argued that Ukraine’s front line relies heavily on his Starlink satellite service, warning that it “would collapse” without it. Despite this leverage, he has pledged not to cut off access. His comments have stirred controversy, especially as he’s targeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rather than Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent critiques.
Defending his position on X, Musk fired back at detractors: “I literally challenged Putin to one-on-one combat over Ukraine, and my Starlink system is the backbone of the Ukrainian army. Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off. What I am sickened by is years of slaughter in a stalemate that Ukraine will inevitably lose.”
The cyberattack and Musk’s remarks have reignited debates over his dual roles as a tech mogul and political influencer, while raising questions about the vulnerabilities of X amid escalating geopolitical tensions. For now, the platform is back online, but the incident underscores the persistent threats facing one of the world’s most prominent social media networks.
