KUALA LUMPUR – Elon Musk earlier today said that his social media platform X experienced a “massive cyber-attack” that caused widespread service disruptions throughout the day, alleging that the attack originated from Ukraine.
“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,” Musk posted on the platform.
The outages, first reported by Downdetector at around 5.45am ET (about 5.45pm yesterday Malaysian time), affected thousands of users globally, particularly on mobile devices. Another surge in reports peaked at around 10am ET before gradually declining in the afternoon.
Users were met with error messages stating that “something went wrong” when attempting to load posts.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyber-attack to try and bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk elaborated on his claims in an interview with Fox Business later that day. However, he did not provide evidence to substantiate the claim.
However, cybersecurity experts, including CEO of CyberSheath Eric Noonan, have expressed scepticism regarding Musk’s allegations.
“One of the things that should always be taken with a grain of salt is any statements made in the short period of time, immediately after, or even in this case during an attack,” Noonan told CNN.
A source in the internet infrastructure industry, who spoke anonymously to Reuters, contested Musk’s claim that the attack came primarily from Ukraine. According to the source, the rogue traffic bombarding X originated largely from the United States, Vietnam, and Brazil, while traffic directly linked to Ukraine was “insignificant.”
The source also noted that denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which overwhelm systems with fake traffic, are notoriously difficult to trace to their true perpetrators, Reuters reported.
Musk has a history of attributing technical failures to cyber-attacks. When his live-streamed interview with Donald Trump crashed in 2024, Musk claimed a “massive DDoS attack” was responsible. However, a company source later told news outlet The Verge that there was no such attack.
Musk’s claims come amid increasing tensions between him and the Ukrainian government. Over the weekend, he asserted that Ukraine’s “entire front line” would collapse if he withdrew access to his Starlink satellite communications network. He also attacked US Senator Mark Kelly, calling him a “traitor” after the lawmaker visited Ukraine.
The billionaire’s businesses are also facing additional challenges. On Friday, a SpaceX rocket exploded mid-flight, scattering debris near the Bahamas. Tesla, his electric car company, has also been the target of protests, with customers selling off vehicles and its stock price declining to a multi-month low yesterday. Additionally, Trump reportedly held a tense meeting with Musk last week, during which the former president suggested curbing Musk’s influence over government personnel.
The disruptions on X add to a series of technical and operational setbacks since Musk acquired the platform for US$44 billion in 2022. After implementing mass layoffs that reduced the workforce by 80%, the platform has experienced frequent outages and glitches. Musk maintains that external forces are attempting to undermine X and his other ventures.
As of press time, X is functioning normally, but the true cause of the outage remains unverified. – March 11, 2025