Elon Musk claims X outage was due to a massive Cyberattack

Hours after widespread outages left thousands of users unable to access X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, owner Elon Musk claimed that the platform had been targeted in a “massive cyberattack.”

“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” Musk stated in a post on X. “Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing…”

Later on Monday, Musk told Fox Business Network’s Kudlow that the attackers had “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” without elaborating on what that might imply.

 

However, cybersecurity experts were quick to challenge Musk’s claims. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont stated on Bluesky that the attack involved a Mirai variant botnet composed of compromised security cameras worldwide, not just in Ukraine. “Smells of APTs advanced persistent teenagers,” he added humorously.

Allan Liska from the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future emphasized that even if “every IP address that hit X today originated from Ukraine (doubtful), they were most likely compromised machines controlled by a botnet run by a third party that could be located anywhere in the world.”

 

Massive Outage Hits X Users

Reports of outages spiked early Monday morning, with more than 40,000 users complaining of being unable to access the platform, according to Downdetector.com. A major disruption occurred at noon, lasting over an hour, with the heaviest impact along the U.S. coasts.

Downdetector.com noted that 56% of complaints were about the X mobile app, while 33% were related to the website.

 

Cybersecurity analyst Nicholas Reese from New York University’s Center for Global Affairs questioned Musk’s claim of state involvement. “The likelihood that a state actor is behind these outages doesn’t make a lot of sense given their short duration unless it was a warning for something bigger,” he explained. Reese suggested that such cyberattacks are either “very loud or very quiet,” with the most valuable ones often being the latter.

A Pattern of Disruptions

X has experienced similar issues in the past. In March 2023, the platform suffered widespread glitches that disrupted links, images, and user logins for over an hour.

The latest outage sparked discussions on rival social media platform Bluesky, where “X outage” became a trending topic. Some users welcomed defectors from Musk’s platform, urging them to stay.

 

Musk, who acquired Twitter in 2022 and rebranded it as X, has continued to run the platform while also leading Tesla and maintaining access to U.S. government data systems. Despite his claims of a coordinated cyberattack, experts remain skeptical about the true cause of Monday’s disruption.

Amnewsworld will continue to monitor developments and provide updates as more information emerges.