Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Elon Musk has blamed a “massive cyberattack” for Monday’s multiple X outages, hinting at possible nation-state involvement.
- Cybersecurity experts have challenged Musk’s claims, suggesting that the attack used a botnet with worldwide IPs, not just from Ukraine.
Elon Musk has claimed that a “massive cyberattack” was behind Monday’s widespread outages of X (formerly Twitter). The disruption that lasted for hours affected thousands of users across different countries.
A coordinated attack or what?
Following the outages, Musk took to X to address the issue, stating, “There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X. 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. Tracing…”
Later in the day, during an interview on Fox Business Network, Musk claimed that the attack’s IP addresses had been traced to the “Ukraine area.” However, he did not provide further details or evidence to support this claim.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity experts have disputed Musk’s claim, warning that IP addresses alone do not confirm the origin of an attack.
Security researcher Kevin Beaumont noted on Bluesky that the attack was carried out using a variant of the Mirai botnet, which is made up of compromised cameras and other connected devices.
According to Beaumont, the attack involved IPs from around the world, not just Ukraine. He also said that the perpetrators could be “advanced persistent teenagers,” jesting that the attack could have been carried out by skilled but mischievous hackers rather than a nation-state.
The X outage affected users in multiple countries, including the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Reports from Downdetector showed three waves of disruptions throughout the day, with significant spikes occurring in the afternoon and evening.
As X continues to investigate, questions remain about who was responsible for the attack and whether the attack was politically or financially motivated.
