X Suffers 40,000 User Outage Amid DDoS Attack

On Monday, the social media platform X experienced significant disruptions due to a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The hacktivist group Dark Storm claimed responsibility for the attack, which they described as a protest against platform owner Elon Musk and former US President Donald Trump. The outages began around 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time and affected approximately 40,000 users in the US and 10,800 users in the UK at its peak. The disruptions were intermittent throughout the day, with users experiencing difficulties accessing the platform.

Dark Storm, a pro-Palestinian hacktivist group, has a history of targeting entities that support Israel, as well as critical infrastructure such as airports. The group has also been known to offer "cybercrime-as-a-service," indicating a commercial motivation behind their activities. The attacks on X were part of a broader campaign by the group, which has previously targeted John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, Los Angeles Airport (LAX), and Snapchat.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, suggested that Ukraine might be behind the attack, claiming that the IP addresses originated from the Ukraine area during a Fox News interview. However, he did not provide evidence to support this assertion. Musk also stated that the platform was working to trace the origin of the attacks and that X was experiencing a massive cyberattack with significant resources involved.

Security experts note that DDoS attack tactics have evolved significantly in recent years. Traditional volume-based attacks have given way to more sophisticated methods, including application-layer floods and targeted API abuse. These advanced tactics make it more challenging to mitigate the impact of such attacks. Large-scale botnets, often powered by IoT malware, can enable attacks exceeding 10 Tbps in scale, overwhelming networks and causing widespread disruptions.

The attacks on X came after a weekend of protests at Tesla dealerships across the US. Demonstrators were seen storming showrooms, graffitiing property, and in some cases, engaging in more destructive acts. Musk blamed billionaires George Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman for funding the "Tesla Takedown" protests through their ActBlue organization. Hoffman denied any involvement, calling the accusations "Just one more of Elon’s false claims about me."

By Monday afternoon, the number of X users impacted had dropped to around 1