Dark Storm gang takes credit for X cyberattack, causing outages

X has suffered a massive cyberattack, leading to worldwide outages, with the hacktivist group Dark Storm claiming responsibility for a DDoS attack. In response, X has activated a DDoS protection service to mitigate further disruptions.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, confirmed the attack, describing it as a large-scale cyber event. While he did not directly attribute the outages to a DDoS attack, he stated that it was carried out with significant resources and could involve a large coordinated group or even a nation-state.

Dark Storm is a pro-Palestinian hacktivist group that emerged in 2023 and has previously targeted organisations in Israel, Europe, and the United States. The group announced on its Telegram channel that it was behind the attack on X, sharing screenshots as evidence and linking to Check-host.net, a website used to monitor site availability across global servers. Cybercriminals frequently use this tool during DDoS attacks to demonstrate their impact by showing website downtime in different regions.

 

In response to the X cyberattack, the platform deployed DDoS shields, adding captcha barriers for security.

 

To counter the cyberattack, X has implemented DDoS mitigation measures, which include requiring users to complete a captcha when their IP address generates an excessive number of requests. The help section of X, help.x.com, currently displays a captcha for all visitors to protect the site from further disruption.

Hacktivist groups continue to pose a major threat to online platforms, often leveraging botnets to launch large-scale attacks. In 2024, two Sudanese brothers were indicted in the United States for allegedly operating Anonymous Sudan, a group responsible for disrupting major tech firms, including Cloudflare, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Their attacks caused significant service outages, affecting millions of users worldwide.

The X cyberattack is another warning of the increasing dangers that hacktivists represent. In order to minimise interruptions, organisations must bolster their cybersecurity defences as these groups continue to modify their strategies. As more advanced attack techniques are used, the possibility of extensive service disruptions continues to be a major worry for international technology platforms.