Elon Musk’s X was plagued by waves of disruptions earlier Monday, which the tycoon claims was due to a cyberattack using IP addresses originating in Ukraine.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk said during a Fox Business appearance Monday afternoon. “But there was a huge cyberattack with IP addresses coming from the Ukraine region that attempted to take down the X system.”
Musk did not elaborate on where the attack came from or if he thought it had anything to do with the Ukrainian government. IP addresses can be hidden to make it appear as though the traffic is coming from a different location, and hackers-for-hire frequently provide location spoofing services.
Up to 20,538 customers reported issues starting at roughly 6 a.m. ET, according to outage tracking website DownDetector. Before roughly 40,000 customers reported disruptions at 10 am, the problems had temporarily subsided. Around 2:00 PM ET, the number of outages recorded on DownDetector started to decline and continued to do so throughout the afternoon.
According to DownDetector’s foreign websites, a large number of users reported that the platform would not load, and the outage seemed to be worldwide. Musk claimed that the platform was operational once more during the Fox Business interview, which aired at 4 p.m. ET.
Since DownDetector data is self-reported, its scale is not entirely accurate. X has been contacted by CNN; however, the corporation typically does not reply to press requests.
Although the purpose behind the attack was not established, Musk stated on X early on Monday afternoon that he thought “a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.” Musk also responded “Yes” to a post on X that implied that individuals were attempting to silence the billionaire and his platform. However, no more information regarding the service outage, such as whether it was the result of a deliberate assault, has been made public.
It’s probably too soon to determine whether the problems were the result of an attack, Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity company CyberSheath, told CNN.
“Any statements made during a brief period of time, right after, or even during an attack in this case, should always be taken with a grain of salt,” Noonan stated.
Musk has a habit of blaming hacks for technical malfunctions. He claimed there was a “probability” of an assault when he spoke with Donald Trump on X 42 minutes late in August 2024.
At the time, Musk said on the social media site, “There was of course a 100% probability of DDOS attacks given the prominence of this conversation.” “Distributed denial-of-service,” or “DDOS,” is the practice of flooding servers with fictitious traffic in an attempt to interrupt services. However, technical issues also plagued Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ 2023 X presidential campaign announcement.
According to Noonan, ransomware assaults have become more frequent than denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks in recent years since they are typically driven by financial gain. However, DDOS is usually employed to interrupt, which also makes it more challenging to identify the origin of these kinds of attacks.
According to Noonan, ransomware assaults have become more frequent than denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks in recent years since they are typically driven by financial gain. However, DDOS is usually employed to interrupt, which also makes it more challenging to identify the origin of these kinds of attacks.
After Musk acquired the well-known social media site, then known as Twitter, in 2022, he made significant adjustments and extensive cuts to X. Within days of acquiring X, he fired 3,500 employees, or over half of the platform’s staff, and fired top executives right away. He forced the remaining workers to return to the office full-time and laid off 80% of the workforce overall.
Since the takeover, the platform has had numerous issues and interruptions.
Musk is the chairman of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and his companies have had a difficult day. The 15% decline in Tesla’s stock on Monday erased the company’s gains since Trump’s election in November 2024.