The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) was unavailable throughout the day on Monday following an apparent cyberattack against the website.
The attack began early Monday morning when X found itself flooded with traffic, a technique known as a “distributed denial-of-service” (DDoS) attack. The attack is intended to inundate a website with website visits using automation techniques, with the ultimate goal of overutilizing a web service’s resources and triggering prolonged outages.
A group referring to itself as “Dark Storm Team” claimed responsibility for the attack. The organization was established three years ago and has targeted websites and services with pro-Palestinian messages; its efforts against popular websites and services ramped up following the October 2023 terrorist attack in Israel and the ongoing conflict between that country and neighboring Gaza.
A Telegram group associated with Dark Storm Team included images that purported to show the attack occurring in real-time. The images included screen captures that purported to show the website going offline in dozens of countries.
By Monday afternoon, X owner Elon Musk affirmed the social media platform was suffering from a “massive cyber attack.” He noted malicious actors attempt to take the web service offline “every day,” but said the current attack was sophisticated in that it “was done with a lot of resources.” Musk speculated that a “large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved,” and said the company was “tracing” its origins.
When another X user suggested the attack was intended to “silence you and this platform,” Musk simply responded, “yes.” In recent months, Musk has become a close confidant of President Donald Trump, inviting renewed scrutiny to him and his companies. He acquired the company once known as Twitter in a hostile takeover two years ago; one of his first moves was to significantly downsize the platform’s security, customer service and communications teams.
