Elon Musk has confirmed that the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) experienced a "massive cyberattack" on March 10, leaving thousands of users unable to access the site. Over 33,000 reports of outages were recorded, primarily affecting users in the US and UK, according to Downdetector.
What Happened?
Users attempting to load X were met with connection errors and frozen feeds throughout Monday morning and into the afternoon. The outages were widespread and appeared to be part of a coordinated attack, according to Musk.
The tech billionaire later suggested that the cyberattack originated from the "Ukraine area," but he provided no concrete evidence to support the claim. His statement has sparked controversy, given his frequent criticism of Ukraine and its leadership.
Alp Toker, director of the cybersecurity watchdog group Netblocks, confirmed that the attack patterns resembled past denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, in which hackers flood a platform with traffic to overwhelm its servers.
Toker explained:
What we've been seeing is consistent with large-scale DDoS attacks rather than an internal system failure.
The Political Context
The attack on X comes amid broader political tensions involving Musk. The entrepreneur currently leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, a role focused on cutting government spending. DOGE has recently targeted the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking to scale back regulatory policies introduced under previous administrations.
Musk has also faced increasing opposition, with at least 10 reported acts of vandalism against Tesla stores in recent months. Some critics link these attacks to his controversial political moves, including his ties to the Trump White House.
It’s happening. @Tesla cars are being vandalized everywhere because of #ElonMusk pic.twitter.com/5d7NKeyY7t
— Taylor (@TaylorIndiana) January 26, 2025
While X's services were restored within hours, the attack underscores growing cybersecurity threats against high-profile platforms. Musk did not confirm whether X has taken new security measures in response, but the event has reignited concerns over the platform’s vulnerabilities.
As of now, there is no official confirmation on who was behind the cyberattack. Whether it was the work of a sophisticated hacker collective or a state-sponsored operation remains to be seen. In the meantime, X users are left wondering if further disruptions could be on the horizon.
HODL Team
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