X Hit by a “Massive Cyberattack” - What We Know and What We Don’t

It’s been a rough week for X (formerly Twitter). Users worldwide reported major issues, and Elon Musk himself took to the platform to claim that the company was under a “massive cyberattack.”

As with any high-profile cybersecurity event, there’s been a mix of facts, speculation, and a fair amount of finger-pointing. So, let’s break down what actually happened, what hasn’t been proven and what this means.

So, Was It Really a Cyberattack?

At this stage, we don’t have concrete forensic evidence publicly available. However, the disruption does fit the pattern of a large-scale DDoS attack.

What We Know:

• X suffered significant outages, with users struggling to access the platform.
• Musk publicly claimed the platform was hit by a “massive cyberattack.”
• Some reports suggest the attack may have involved a botnet, potentially linked to a variant of Mirai (which historically has been used in massive DDoS attacks).
• The attack appears to have originated from a variety of global IP addresses—a classic sign of a distributed attack.

What We Don’t Know:

• Who was behind it. Attribution in cyberattacks is always complex, and at this stage, no verified threat actor has claimed responsibility.
• Whether this was politically motivated. Musk has suggested a possible connection to Ukraine, but cybersecurity experts have cautioned against jumping to conclusions. Attackers often route traffic through compromised devices in multiple countries, making geographic clues unreliable.
• If X’s own infrastructure played a role. It’s unclear whether internal technical issues or poor mitigation strategies exacerbated the disruption.

Why This Matters for Cyber Security Professionals

Regardless of the who or why, this event is another wake-up call for organisations and security teams. A few key takeaways:

1. Botnets Are Still a Major Problem

DDoS attacks haven’t gone away, and they remain one of the easiest ways to cripple an online service.

• Mirai-style botnets exploit vulnerable IoT devices, turning them into attack nodes.
• More devices = bigger attacks. The expansion of IoT means attacks today can be larger and more disruptive than ever.
• Attackers don’t need huge resources—they can rent DDoS-for-hire services for relatively little cost.

Lesson: If your organisation relies on online services, DDoS protection needs to be a priority.

2. Attribution is a Minefield

It’s tempting to assign blame quickly, especially in politically charged situations. But cyber attribution is:

• Technically difficult – Attackers use VPNs, compromised machines, and other obfuscation techniques.
• Politically sensitive – Unfounded accusations can escalate tensions and distract from finding real solutions.
• Often misdirected – Just because an attack appears to come from a certain country doesn’t mean the attackers are based there.

Lesson: Cyber security professionals should always focus on evidence, not speculation.

3. Social Media Outages Have Bigger Implications Than You’d Think

While a social media platform going down might not seem as critical as, say, a hospital or power grid being attacked, X plays a crucial role in global communication.

• Governments, emergency services, and journalists use X as a primary communication channel.
• Misinformation thrives in moments of chaos. With X down, alternative narratives spread unchecked.
• Large-scale outages highlight weaknesses in how centralised our digital communication has become.

Lesson: Cyber attacks on social media platforms should be taken just as seriously as attacks on other critical infrastructure.

What Happens Next?

For now, we’ll have to wait for more technical details to emerge. Hopefully, cybersecurity researchers will be able to analyse the attack patterns and identify whether this was truly an external attack or a case of internal misconfiguration making things worse.

What’s certain is that DDoS attacks remain a major threat, attribution is rarely simple, and social media platforms are more critical than we often realise.

What do you think? Was this just another botnet attack, or could there be more at play? Let’s discuss.