Hacktivist Group Claims Cyberattack That Spurred Multiple X Outages on Monday

A group of hacktivists is claiming responsibility for the cyberattack that led to multiple worldwide X outages on Monday.

Several X outages reported on Monday

X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered extensive outages on Monday, rendering the platform unusable or inaccessible to numerous US and UK users.

Popular platform connectivity monitor Downdetector recorded tens of thousands of reports from US users and over 8,000 from UK users. Some of the connectivity issues reportedly lasted well into Monday afternoon.

Users trying to access X via its mobile app or desktop website were greeted by a loading icon.

Hints of DDoS foul play

Although X owner Elon Musk refrained from commenting on the specifics of the attack, the consensus centers on distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.

“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏,” reads Musk’s announcement on X. “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …”

Pro-Palestinian hacktivists claim the attack

As it turns out, initial suspicions of foul play might just be true, as a pro-Palestinian hacktivist group claimed responsibility for the attack, providing evidence to back their claims.

The group posted screenshots and links to availability-checking platform Check-host[.]net on its Telegram group to prove their attacks against X.

Allegedly, perpetrators often use the checker to gloat about ongoing DDoS attacks.

Furthermore, according to CoinTelegraph, NFTz.me NFT marketplace co-founder Ed Krassenstein claimed to have contacted Dark Storm’s leader, who confirmed the group’s involvement in the attack.

“The reason he gives me for the attack is ‘just a demonstration of our strength,’ with no political motives,” added Krassenstein.

Company response and mitigation

Following the incident, X implemented Cloudflare DDoS-protection and now displays confirmation captchas in response to suspicious activity, such as multiple requests from a single IP address.

As BleepingComputer reported, X’s dedicated help section now prompts every request with a captcha.