Elon Musk Attributes X Service Disruption to Major Cyberattack, Raises Eyebrows in Cybersecurity Community

The social media platform X experienced sporadic outages on Monday, with its owner Elon Musk attributing the disruption to a notably intense cyberattack.

«We encounter attacks daily, but this one was executed with substantial resources. It likely involves a significant, coordinated group and/or a nation,» Musk remarked in a tweet on X earlier that day.

He did not specify what he meant by «substantial resources,» and his statements were met with skepticism from cybersecurity experts, who noted that such denial of service attacks have often been carried out by smaller groups or individuals.

X experienced periodic service disruptions, as reported by Downdetector, affecting 39,021 users in the United States at the peak time of 10 am ET. By 5 pm, about 1,500 users reported service issues.

An insider from the internet infrastructure sector indicated that X was subjected to multiple waves of denial of service starting around 9:45 UTC. This individual spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to disclose information publicly.

Denial of service attacks work by flooding targeted websites with excessive traffic. While these attacks may not be advanced, they can cause considerable interruption.

Musk later stated in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow that the cyberattack originated from IP addresses linked to the Ukraine region.

The industry insider contested Musk’s claim, stating that a significant portion of the malicious traffic targeting X could be traced back to IP addresses located in the United States, Vietnam, Brazil, and other nations, asserting that the traffic sourced directly from Ukraine was «minimal.»

In general, denial of service attacks are notoriously challenging to trace back to their perpetrators, and the involved IP addresses often provide little insight into the identities behind the attacks.

Musk has aligned himself with US President Donald Trump, whom he advises, in criticizing Ukraine’s ongoing efforts to repel a Russian invasion. Musk noted on Sunday that Ukraine’s front lines «would collapse» without his Starlink satellite communications service, although he stated he would not sever Ukraine’s access to it.

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