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Pointing finger at Ukraine after X outage is ‘dangerous’, cyber expert says

11 Mar 2025 4 minute read
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It would be “dangerous to point the finger” at Ukraine after Elon Musk said X’s outage had links to the country, a cybersecurity expert said.

Mr Musk said the social media platform was being targeted in a “massive cyberattack”, telling Fox Business Network that the attackers had “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area”.

Complaints about outages spiked around 11am UK time on Monday, and again four hours later, with more than 40,000 users reporting no access to the platform, according to tracking website Downdetector.com.

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at software security firm Eset, told the PA news agency that he is “confident” it was a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, which involves multiple IP addresses flooding a server or website with internet traffic.

Hackers

He went on: “Unfortunately, X remains one of the most talked about platforms making it a typical target for hackers marking their own territory.

“All that can be done to future proof their networks is to continue to expect the unexpected and build even more robust DDoS protection layers.

“IP addresses can also be directed via software to be seen to have originated anywhere in the world.

“Therefore, even if their analysis suggests Ukraine, it would be dangerous to point the finger so early on.”

Mr Moore added that “simple analysis” of the IP addresses would point towards their location, but that this can be “tampered with” to make it seem that the origin is in a different country.

He said: “Without seeing the report of the investigation it would be difficult to agree with this accusation either way.”

The former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Ciaran Martin, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was a “remarkable incident”.

Mr Martin said: “I am very surprised that X fell over as a result of a DDoS attack, it’s a very large-scale DDoS attack but it’s not that sophisticated, it’s a very old technique.”

He said that he could not think of an example of a company the size of X “falling over” due to a DDoS attack “for a very long time”, adding that it “doesn’t reflect well on their cybersecurity”.

Mr Martin said that Mr Musk’s claim that the attack had links to Ukraine was “wholly unconvincing based on the evidence so far” and “pretty much garbage”.

Traffic

Toby Lewis, of cybersecurity firm Darktrace, said: “This appears to be a fairly standard DDoS attack on X – essentially an overwhelming amount of traffic designed to disrupt the service.

“Like all DDoS attacks, the effect is temporary, and so users to X this morning may well not spot anything wrong at all.

“Importantly, these sorts of attacks are almost always delivered by botnets. Globally distributed networks of computers that have been unknowingly recruited to take part in the attack – typically through some form of compromise or the use of malware.”

Meanwhile, David Mound, of third-party risk management platform SecurityScorecard, said: “Beyond technique evolution, DDoS motivations are shifting.

“Hacktivism has resurged, with groups like Killnet and Anonymous Sudan launching politically motivated disruptions against governments, financial institutions, and infrastructure providers.

“Meanwhile, ransom DDoS campaigns have increased, with attackers extorting businesses by threatening prolonged downtime.

“Nation-state actors are also employing DDoS as part of broader cyber influence and disruption campaigns, particularly in geopolitical conflicts.”

Mr Musk, who is acting as an adviser on federal spending to Donald Trump, previously said Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is running a “fraud machine feeding off the dead bodies of soldiers”, suggesting limited appetite for continued American support for Ukraine.

The Tesla CEO bought the site, formerly Twitter, in 2022.


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Barry
Barry
2 hours ago

More evidence that Musk is either not very bright after all, or is receiving instructions from somewhere.

Karl
Karl
2 hours ago

You have to be very stupid to point fingers at Ukraine. After all a famous hacking group had warned Musk and others. Musk is deeply dishonest and stoking hate along with his little salutes. He needs to get to rehab and join reality.

Jeff
Jeff
1 hour ago
Reply to  Karl

Especially when a Russian hacking group fessed up (unverified)

Jeff
Jeff
1 hour ago

Kerist, his pants must be on fire, what a disgusting human example.

he cut his staff to the bone.

good job he is not cutting any other staffing in the us.

oh, wait….

farage a rowe still fighting over his love?

Rob
Rob
16 minutes ago

There is a disturbing narrative within Russian propaganda that Britain started WW2 because Poland provoked the Nazis and Britain shouldn’t have got involved, and frighteningly many Americans including Trump might fall for this narrative as well.

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