Yesterday, March 10, X (formerly known as Twitter) faced major outages that disrupted services globally. While Elon Musk made the speculative comment on the outage, the incident was later claimed by a hacktivist group called DarkStorm Team, a pro-Palestinian hacker collective known for cyberattacks on Western institutions, stated a report by MoneyControl.
The hacker group allegedly launched a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, causing widespread connectivity issues.
Outage and the Cyberattack
The outage began at approximately 6.00 am Eastern Time, with users from North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia reporting accessibility issues. Downdetector recorded over 41,000 reports of disrupted service, with many users experiencing complete login failures and service timeouts.
After a short while, the DarkStorm Team took responsibility via a Telegram post, sharing a screenshot showing failed connections across global locations. X’s CEO, Elon Musk, acknowledged the cyberattack, referring to it as a “massive and coordinated” attempt to bring down the platform. He suggested that the scale of the attack indicated the possible involvement of a nation-state actor.
Who is DarkStorm Team?
The DarkStorm Team first came to the limelight in September 2023 and managed to position themselves as a pro-Palestinian hacktivist collective with financial and geopolitical motivations. The group has a history of multiple cyber attacks since then and has been linked to multiple cyberattacks, including ransomware incidents, data breaches, and targeted DDoS operations.
Their previous targets have included government institutions, financial organisations, and transportation infrastructure across Israel, the United States, and NATO-aligned countries, stated Money Control.
Cybersecurity analysts have identified potential affiliations between the DarkStorm Team and other hacktivist groups such as Killnet, Anonymous Sudan, and Ghosts of Palestine. The group allegedly collaborates with underground networks that offer cyberattack services for hire.