Musk links Ukraine to X outage following Darkstorm's claim

The global disruption affected millions, with Downdetector noting 2,000 complaints from India, 18,000 from the US, and 10,000 from the UK, raising alarms over the scale and coordination of the cyberattack

Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), has reportedly pointed to Ukrainian forces as the source of a massive global outage that affected the platform on Monday (March 10). His comments come after the hacking group Darkstorm, which is known for its pro-Palestinian stance, claimed responsibility for taking X offline.

In an interview with Fox News, Musk explained that the cyber-attack targeted X's systems with IP addresses reportedly originating from Ukraine. “We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk said. Prior to the interview, he had posted on X about the ongoing attack, 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."

The outage affected millions of users globally, with Downdetector reporting around 2,000 complaints from India, 18,000 from the US, and 10,000 from the UK. These disruptions raised concerns about the scale of the attack and its potential coordination, as large numbers of users from different countries experienced issues accessing the platform.

Darkstorm claims responsibility for X outage

Darkstorm, a hacking group with a history of targeting countries supporting Israel amid the ongoing Gaza conflict, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on Telegram, stating they had taken X offline.

Musk’s comments came amid rising political tensions between the US and Ukraine. This follows a heated exchange between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over US foreign policy regarding Ukraine. Despite the growing friction, Musk reaffirmed his stance on Starlink services, stating that despite his disagreements with Ukraine’s policies, “Starlink will never turn off its terminals” in the country.

Musk’s statements underscore the complex geopolitical dynamics influencing tech operations, with Ukraine’s involvement in the cyber-attack adding a new layer of controversy to the situation.

Also Read: Global outage hits social media platform X