X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, suffered a major disruption on Tuesday as thousands of users reported difficulties accessing the site.
Responding to the disruptions, Musk confirmed that X had been targeted by a significant cyberattack.
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 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 …,” he said.
When asked about the attack on X later the same day, Musk provided further details in an interview on Fox Business Network with Larry Kudlow. He revealed that they had traced the attack to “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
“We are not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyberattack trying to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” he said.
According to DownDetector, a platform that tracks outages across various digital services, over 41,000 users reported issues around 10:03 a.m. EDT, with most complaints indicating problems with the app and website.
Although the number of reports declined after the peak, users continued to experience disruptions, with complaints ranging between 25,000 and 36,000 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Earlier in the day, at 5:43 a.m., similar issues were reported, reaching a peak of 22,766 complaints just before 6 a.m. before appearing to resolve an hour later.
The attack raises concerns about the security of the platform, which has faced scrutiny over cybersecurity measures since Musk’s acquisition.
X is reportedly in discussions with investors to raise funds at a valuation of $44 billion. This valuation matches the price Musk paid to acquire the company in 2022.
The potential funding round marks a significant turnaround for the social media giant, which faced a wave of user and advertiser departures following Musk’s takeover and subsequent overhaul of the platform.
While talks are ongoing, the details of the financing round could still change, and the company may ultimately decide to abandon the fundraising efforts, the sources added. This would be the first known investment round for X since Musk took the company private in 2022.
The potential funding round comes after a period of financial challenges for X. In December 2023, prior to the current discussions, Fidelity Investments marked down the value of its stake in X by about 70% from the $44 billion acquisition price.
However, recent developments suggest a shift in sentiment. X’s debt has also seen a positive revaluation. Last week, Morgan Stanley finalized the sale of $3 billion worth of X debt at face value, without any discount, according to sources. This marks a significant improvement from earlier attempts to offload the debt, which were met with hesitation from potential buyers.