Borders of the storm: the attack on Musk's social network will aggravate relations between the United States and Ukraine

A large-scale attack on the social network X (ex. Twitter) Ilona Mask will aggravate relations between Washington and Kiev, experts say. They believe that this attack was not the last. According to the businessman, the Internet addresses from which the attacks were carried out were linked to Ukraine, and before that, his other assets, in particular Tesla stores, were attacked. Subsequently, the pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm Team claimed responsibility for a series of DDoS attacks that occurred on March 10. Nevertheless, experts believe that the real customer of the attack is still unknown. What the war of the so—called hacktivists against the odious entrepreneur will lead to is in the Izvestia article.

Attack on the social network X

On March 10, users of the social network X faced disruptions in different countries — the nature of the problem was widespread and occurred all over the world. Soon, the owner of X, Elon Musk, wrote that a large-scale cyberattack had been committed against the site.

— We face hacker attacks on a daily basis, but this incident has involved significant resources. Perhaps this is the coordinated actions of a large group of hackers or the involvement of the state. We're finding out," he said on his Facebook page.

Photo: TASS/IMAGO/Wolfgang Maria Weber

Later, one of Musk's assistants noted that the attack continued the chain of previous attacks on the entrepreneur, which began with protests against the activities of the Department for Improving the Efficiency of U.S. Government (DOGE) and attacks on Tesla stores.

On the night of March 11, he gave a detailed interview to Fox News, in which he noted that the massive cyberattack was skillfully coordinated and aimed at completely destabilizing site X, while the Internet addresses involved in the attack were linked to Ukraine.

Photo: Getty Images/Anna Barclay

According to the Downdetector service, which tracks website failures in real time, the X social network has been subjected to two waves of so-called DDoS attacks - the first started at 12:30 Moscow time, the second and longer — at 16:30 Moscow time. Users couldn't access the site, and the X mobile app didn't work either. The main number of complaints about the problem came from the USA, Great Britain and Japan.

Who are the Dark Storm Team

The pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm Team claimed responsibility for the large-scale cyberattack.

She is known for attacks on organizations and countries that support Israel in the Middle East conflict, Igor Bederov, head of the information and analytical research department at T. Hunter, told Izvestia. These hackers use DDoS attacks and other methods to disrupt the network infrastructure, attacking social networks, airports and government agencies. The goals of Dark Storm are often linked to a political agenda directed against the Jewish state and its allies.

At the same time, Phishman CEO and information security expert Alexey Gorelkin noted that the real customer was still unknown, and "taking responsibility" was most likely part of the payment for services from him.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Alexey Malgavko

The expert is convinced that hacktivism is often used as a cover for pro-government organizations that attack exactly those whom they benefit from. You need to understand that any cyberattacks are not free and someone has to pay for them, the specialist emphasized.

— The obvious consequences of the attack on X include technical and reputational risks that have undermined trust in the social network. We note the political resonance of this attack and the mention of Ukrainian IP addresses, which may lead to international investigations and further aggravation of relations between the United States and Ukraine," Igor Bederov believes.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov

According to the expert, unlike X, Russian services have been under unprecedented pressure from hacker groups for more than three years in a row. This, of course, allowed them to harden up and ensure the proper level of security. Meanwhile, the Russian experience of information security in the context of a hybrid armed conflict is already being studied and will be studied around the world. The vulnerabilities that arise only indicate that we are following the path of ensuring security, the specialist added.

Elon Musk is known for his conflicted nature, which means that the target on his back is especially attractive to hacktivists and other scammers, says IT expert Sergey Pomortsev. In his opinion, attacks on the "empire of Mask" will continue, and Ukrainian Internet addresses have become just a convenient excuse for today's agenda, in which the Trump team does not miss opportunities to criticize Kiev's actions. And first of all, Elon Musk is part of the US president's team, the expert reminds.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Andrey Erstrem

— To begin with, they will strengthen protection against DDoS attacks. The incident will be investigated in parallel, with all the consequences. It is difficult to predict the consequences, since we do not know what the results of the investigation of the Mask team will lead to," said Alexey Gorelkin.

The actions of groups such as Dark Storm can destabilize the work of any company and offend any state, said Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. Russia is no exception, but it should be noted that our specialists are often ahead of such attacks, so even in the case of large-scale cyber attacks, this does not disable domestic systems, he concluded.