Elon Musk Alleges Massive Cyberattack on X, Points to Ukrainian IP Addresses
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has claimed that the platform experienced a massive cyberattack on Monday, causing widespread outages for users around the world.
Speaking on Fox News, Musk alleged that the attack was linked to IP addresses originating in Ukraine, though he did not provide direct evidence of the claim.
The outages, which began early Monday morning, disrupted access for tens of thousands of users, according to outage tracking site Downdetector. At its peak, nearly 40,000 reports of service issues were logged, with many users experiencing difficulties loading the platform on both desktop and mobile.
Musk took to X to address the situation, writing:
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources.”
He suggested that the attack was carried out by either a “large, coordinated group and/or a country.”
Later, in an interview with Fox Business, Musk specified that the attack was linked to IP addresses in Ukraine, but acknowledged that the full details were still unclear. Some cybersecurity experts have noted that IP addresses can be spoofed, meaning the attack may not have actually originated from Ukraine.
This is not the first time Musk has pointed to cyberattacks as a source of disruption on X. He previously suggested that his 2024 conversation with Donald Trump on the platform was delayed due to a potential attack. However, no official confirmation has been made regarding Monday’s incident.
Cybersecurity specialists, including Alp Toker of the internet monitoring group NetBlocks, have stated that the outage pattern is consistent with a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which hackers overwhelm a system with excessive traffic to bring it down.
“What we’ve been seeing is consistent with what we’ve seen in past denial of service attacks,” Toker told the BBC.
Beyond the X outages, Musk has faced increasing scrutiny and protests in recent weeks. His leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has sparked backlash, with protests erupting at Tesla dealerships in over 50 cities globally. Musk has suggested, without evidence, that these demonstrations were organized by political opponents, including Democratic fundraising group ActBlue and billionaire George Soros.
Additionally, Musk continues to balance his leadership across multiple companies, including Tesla and SpaceX, while managing the growing responsibilities tied to his government role. Despite these challenges, he remains steadfast in his commitment to both X and DOGE, stating that his team is growing from 100 to 200 members.
Deutsche Welle, CNN, BBC, and Independent contributed to this report.
