In a dramatic turn of events, Elon Musk has claimed that his social media platform, X, was the target of a “massive cyberattack” that led to widespread outages earlier this week. The billionaire entrepreneur took to X to inform users about the incident, which left thousands unable to access the site for several hours.
According to Musk, the attack was highly sophisticated and likely orchestrated by a well-resourced group or even a nation-state. “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 stated.
The outage began early Monday morning, with users reporting issues accessing the platform around 5:30 a.m. EDT. The problem seemed to resolve briefly but resurfaced later in the day, peaking with over 41,000 outage reports. Downdetector, a website that tracks online service disruptions, noted that the issues persisted intermittently throughout the day.
Musk suggested that the cyberattack might have originated from the Ukraine area, though he did not provide specific evidence to support this claim. “We’re not sure exactly what happened but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” he mentioned in an interview with Fox Business.
The timing of the attack has raised eyebrows, especially given Musk’s recent controversial role in the U.S. government as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency. This position has made him a target for protests and even threats, adding another layer of complexity to the situation.
While the platform has since been restored, the incident has sparked a flurry of discussions about cybersecurity and the vulnerabilities of even the most high-profile tech companies. Musk’s revelation underscores the ongoing challenges that social media platforms face in safeguarding their networks against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
As the investigation continues, users and cybersecurity experts alike will be watching closely to see how X and its team respond to this significant breach. For now, the incident serves as a stark reminder of the ever-present risks in our digital age.
