Writer: Jordan Sprogis
Editor: Lillian Castro
Reviewer: Cristian Lopez
Key Takeaways
X users experienced some major service outages early Monday, March 10, beginning around 5:30 AM EST, with issues peaking at around 10:00 AM.
Approximately 40,000 users in the U.S. and 11,000 users in the UK reported issues accessing X, according to Downdetector.
The platform’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, quickly addressed the problem, claiming it was caused by a “massive cyberattack.”
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” Musk wrote in a post. “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. Tracing…”
In a subsequent interview with Fox Business’s Larry Kudlow on Monday afternoon, Musk said: “We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the ecosystem with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
The pro-Palestinian hacker collective known as Dark Storm Team initially claimed responsibility for Monday’s attack.
The group posted on Telegram that it had successfully “taken Twitter offline” and shared a screenshot of a real-time status page showing failed connection attempts from multiple global locations. X has since implemented DDoS protections from Cloudflare to help mitigate this.
Second Wave of Attacks Underway?
On Tuesday, March 11, a well-known user called Puck Arks posted on Bluesky: “#Darkstorm again launching another DDOS attack… Reports coming in that mobile app phone service and dms are being affected around the world. Down detector confirms these reports.”
#Darkstorm again launching another DDOS attack
Reports coming in that mobile app phone service and dms are being affected around the world. Down detector confirms these reports
#TwitterDown #TakedownTwitter
— Puck Arks (@puckarks.bsky.social) March 11, 2025 at 8:21 AM
On Monday, Puck Arks also posted: “#DarkStorm has confirmed that the DDOS attack against Twitter will continue throughout the day as a protest against Musk and Trump.”
Puck Arks, who identifies as an activist involved with movements including #Anonymous, #MutualAid, and #Occupy, has not clarified the nature of their connection to Dark Storm Team.
In its original statement, Dark Storm Team accused Elon Musk and President Donald Trump of promoting what they called “blatant fascism.”
Growing Cybersecurity Concerns
Oded Vanunu, Head of Products Vulnerability Research at Check Point Software Technologies, commented that “the resurgence of Dark Storm Team highlights the growing cyber threat against major online platforms and critical infrastructure.”
2024 has already seen approximately 20 million DDoS attacks globally — a 12% increase compared to 2023.
Dane Sherrets, Staff Solutions Architect at HackerOne, recently spoke with us, warning that “AI tools make it much easier for bad actors to find and exploit vulnerabilities.”
“We’ve already seen how vulnerabilities like the XZ Backdoor can create wide-scale damage, and AI makes it even easier for attackers to exploit similar weaknesses rapidly,” Sherrets said. “It’s imperative now more than ever that organizations consider offensive strategies to keep up.”
The cybersecurity lens looks a little different when even tech giants with seemingly unlimited resources are vulnerable to determined attackers. For platforms like X, adopting more proactive offensive strategies may no longer be optional — nor should it be taken lightly by any organization. The next target could be any platform we’ve come to rely on.
