Elon Musk Blames X Outage on Powerful Cyberattack, Experts Skeptical
March 10 (Reuters) – Social media platform X experienced intermittent outages on Monday, with owner Elon Musk attributing the disruption to a sophisticated cyberattack.
“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,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
However, Musk did not elaborate on what he meant by “a lot of resources,” and cybersecurity experts expressed skepticism. They noted that similar attacks—known as denial-of-service (DoS) attacks—have often been carried out by small groups or even individuals.X Outage Affects Thousands of Users Amid Suspected Cyberattack
March 10 (Reuters) – Social media platform X experienced intermittent outages on Monday, with peak disruptions affecting 39,021 users in the U.S. around 10 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector. By 5 p.m., the number of reported issues had dropped to approximately 1,500 users.
A source from the internet infrastructure industry, speaking anonymously, revealed that X was targeted by multiple waves of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks starting around 9:45 UTC.
DoS attacks work by overwhelming websites with excessive traffic, causing disruptions. While not always highly sophisticated, they can lead to significant service interruptions.Elon Musk stated in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow that the cyberattack targeting X originated from IP addresses in the Ukraine region. However, an industry source challenged Musk’s claim, asserting that a significant portion of the rogue traffic overwhelming the platform was traced to IP addresses in the United States, Vietnam, Brazil, and other countries, with only a minimal amount coming from Ukraine. Regardless, experts note that denial-of-service attacks are notoriously difficult to attribute, as the IP addresses involved often provide little insight into the true perpetrators.Elon Musk, who serves as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has echoed Trump’s criticism of Ukraine’s ongoing resistance against the Russian invasion. On Sunday, Musk claimed that Ukraine’s front line “would collapse” without his Starlink satellite communications service but assured that he would not cut off the country’s access to it.