On March 10, 2025, the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced significant outages affecting tens of thousands of users worldwide. Reports of access issues began around 6 a.m. Eastern Time, peaking at approximately 10 a.m. with over 40,000 user complaints, according to Downdetector.com. A subsequent outage occurred around noon, predominantly impacting users on the U.S. coasts.
Elon Musk, owner of X, attributed these disruptions to a "massive cyberattack," suggesting the involvement of a well-coordinated group or possibly a nation-state. He noted that while X faces daily attacks, the scale and resources utilized in this incident were unprecedented.
In an interview with Fox Business' Larry Kudlow, Musk mentioned that the attack originated from IP addresses in the "Ukraine area."
Cybersecurity experts, however, advise caution in drawing conclusions based solely on IP addresses, as they can be misleading due to the global nature of botnets and compromised devices. Security researcher Kevin Beaumont observed that the attack involved IPs from around the world, likely orchestrated by a variant of the Mirai botnet, which utilizes compromised devices such as cameras. Allan Liska of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that compromised machines controlled by a third party could be located anywhere globally.
The outages primarily affected the X app and website, with 56% of problems reported for the app and 33% for the website. Users turned to alternative platforms like BlueSky to discuss the disruptions, with "X outage" trending on these sites.
This incident follows previous outages, including a significant one in March 2023, when the platform, then known as Twitter, experienced widespread glitches affecting links, images, and logins.
As of now, X has not released detailed technical data regarding the attack, making it challenging to verify the exact nature and origin of the incident. Cybersecurity experts highlight that without comprehensive data, attributing the attack to a specific group or nation remains speculative. The platform's resilience and response to such attacks are under scrutiny, especially considering its role in global communication.
