Elon Musk revealed that the cyberattack which took down his social media app X on Monday seemingly originated in Ukraine.
His bombshell revelation came during an interview with Fox Business Network on Monday afternoon following repeated glitches with his site, which has been down for much of the day.
‘Well, we don’t we’re not sure exactly what happened,’ Musk began in the interview.
‘But there was a massive cyber attack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,’ he shockingly revealed.
Musk confirmed earlier in the day that X has been targeted by a ‘massive cyberattack.’
However, the world’s richest man noted during the interview that the social media sight is now back up and running now.
The statement came after the platform has been down for users worldwide. Users have cited issues with the app and website since as early as 5:30am ET.
Musk shared on X that the hack involves so many resources that he believes it could only be the work of a ‘coordinated group’ or a foreign country.
X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed in an interview Monday afternoon that he is still not sure exactly why his social media platform went down on Monday, though he shared that IP addresses based out of Ukraine were involved in the apparent sabotage
Elon Musk confirmed that his X platform was a victim of a ‘massive cyberattack’
X was down for users worldwide on Monday. Tens of thousands of users reported issues
His comments during his TV interview Monday afternoon appear to confirm that concern.
Musk did not offer any other details on the attack which has impacted the app’s 600 million active monthly users.
Dark Storm Team, a hacking group, took credit for the attack, according to post on X Monday afternoon.
Cybersecurity group SpyoSecure claimed that they spoke to the leader of Dark Storm Team, who revealed that they initiated a DDOS attack on X.
A DDOS attack is essentially a traffic jam on the internet, caused on purpose to shut websites down.
In these attacks the hacker sends thousands or even millions of fake visitors (bots) to flood the site.
This causes the site gets so overwhelmed that it slows down or completely crashes, making it impossible for real users to get onto X.
Many users have been left unable to log in to their accounts, while others reported the site will not load to shows posts.
Elon Musk (L) sits for an interview with Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow
Those already logged in on the app and website have been presented with the message: ‘Something went wrong, try reloading.’
Downdetector, a site that tracks websites that go down, shows that tens of thousands of users have reported issues with X.
At 10 am ET on Monday, over 40,000 users reported issues with the social media site.
As of 5 pm ET, however, only about 1,000 users reported having problems, meaning engineers at X had seemingly been able to get the attack under control.
The attack comes as Musk is pushing Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to make massive federal reforms.
Anti-Musk protesters rally across from the Tesla dealership at the Americana at Brand mall in Glendale, California on Saturday, February 22, 2025. The protest is one of many happening across the country as part of an effort organizers dub #Tesla Takeover
A member of the Seattle Fire Department inspects a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle, Monday, March 10, 2025
Authorities have been investigating who is behind fires set at Tesla charging stations in Massachusetts
Already the group is touting estimated savings over $100 billion in savings, according to the DOGE site. That shakes out to about $650 saved per taxpayer.
These efforts have prompted an eruption of protests across the country as federal workers and liberals decry the Musk and Trump-led effort.
Most recently activists have targeted Musk’s Tesla locations where they have held protests and blocked customers from entering dealerships.
In some instances, Tesla cars that were sitting in lots ready for sale were completely burnt to a crisp by arsonists in Colorado and France.
When pressed on how vandals have been targeting Tesla globally, Musk shrugged off the disasters.
‘Always look on the bright side of life,’ he said with a smile before bursting out with a laugh.
