Outage Details

According to reports, the outage began around 5:30 AM ET, with users experiencing difficulties accessing the platform. The issue persisted for several hours, with some users able to access the platform intermittently. Downdetector, a website that tracks online outages, reported a spike in outage reports from users during this time.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, took to the platform to explain the cause of the outage, stating that it was due to a 'massive cyberattack' with either a 'large, coordinated group and/or a country' behind the attack. Musk did not provide any evidence to support his claims, but experts suggest that the attack could be plausible given the pattern of outages observed.

Expert Analysis

Isik Mater, director of research at NetBlocks, which tracks internet connectivity around the world, stated that 'it's difficult to be certain, but given the pattern of three observed outages, a denial service attack targeting X's infrastructure can't be ruled out.' Mater also noted that the outage was one of the longest X/Twitter outages in their records.

Musk later expanded on his explanation, stating that the IP addresses of the attackers originated from the Ukraine area. This is not the first time that Musk has blamed a major attack for X's technical issues, having done so previously when a livestreamed audio chat with President Donald Trump experienced technical difficulties.

NEWS FACTORY

Cybersecurity