Social media platform hit by widespread outage; cybersecurity experts warn of potential geopolitical motives
San Francisco: Elon Musk said X was hit by a major cyberattack, raising questions as to whether the politically divisive billionaire is being targeted or if his decision to gut staff at what was once Twitter is haunting the social network.
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” Musk said in a post on the platform, which was working sporadically as the day wore on.
Reports of problems with X started early Monday, with users in Asia, Europe, and North America saying they could not access the platform, according to the Downdetector tracking site.
The SpaceX and Tesla boss also blamed a cyberattack, although he provided no evidence, for crashing the site last year when an interview with Donald Trump was about to be streamed on it.
Musk shared a post from an account called DogeDesigner suggesting that the latest cyberattack was another burst of animosity towards him, in line with recent protests against the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that he leads and the vandalisation of Tesla facilities.
Musk speculated that such an attack would take tremendous resources and that it was the work of a country or large coordinated group.
During an interview on Fox Business, he alleged that computers used in the attack appeared to have digital addresses in the Ukraine area and that X was still trying to figure out exactly what happened.
Cybersecurity experts say that it is difficult to assess the situation without being able to see into X operations, but the duration of the trouble is a sign of an attack. “It’s cyberwar hitting at full force,” said Chad Cragle of cyber defense platform Deepwatch.
“With Musk in the spotlight and political tensions at a peak, these attacks bear all the indicators of nation-state aggression.”
Meanwhile, the US officials have not determined who was behind the apparent cyber attack on the social media site X, according to a Trump administration official familiar with the ongoing investigation into the matter.
