Today, the social media platform X/Twitter experienced multiple outages, each affecting different regions for varying durations. Following these disruptions, Elon Musk disclosed that the platform had been targeted by a DDoS attack orchestrated by hackers.
In response to the overwhelming flood of malicious traffic, Musk was compelled to implement Cloudflare’s mitigation strategies. Once these countermeasures were activated, users attempting to access X/Twitter had to complete a CAPTCHA verification process, while the malicious traffic was redirected and absorbed by Cloudflare’s distributed network, preventing it from reaching X/Twitter’s servers. Shortly thereafter, the platform resumed normal operations.
Musk speculated that an attack of this magnitude could only have been executed by either a highly organized and disciplined professional group or a state-sponsored hacking organization. However, he acknowledged that his theory remained largely speculative and lacked concrete evidence.
The orchestrators of this attack were identified as Dark Storm, a pro-Palestinian hacker collective known for politically motivated cyber offensives. The group had previously launched attacks against various entities in Israel, Europe, and the United States.
Dark Storm Team provided only limited details about the attack, sharing progress updates exclusively within their private channels. However, it is evident that they command a vast network of botnets, which enabled them to execute such a large-scale DDoS assault.
Given that X/Twitter is now under Cloudflare’s protection, it remains uncertain whether Cloudflare will later disclose detailed traffic metrics from this attack. Nevertheless, any volumetric assault capable of crippling X/Twitter’s infrastructure would undoubtedly involve terabit-per-second (Tbps)-level traffic.
In the past, a similar hacking collective, Anonymous Sudan, executed disruptive cyberattacks against Microsoft and several other major corporations, causing widespread service outages. However, due to their high-profile activities, two Sudanese hackers linked to the group were eventually arrested and extradited to the United States. Whether Dark Storm will meet the same fate remains to be seen.
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