Elon Musk Baselessly Claims ‘Ukraine Area’ Responsible for Twitter Cyber Attack

[WBHG NEWS] – Twitter, also known as X, experienced a global outage for several hours today. The outage affected the Android and iOS apps and also caused numerous problems with the web client.

Speaking on Fox News, Elon Musk told Larry Kudlow, “We’re not sure what happened…there was a massive cyber attack to try and bring down the X system – ah – with ah – IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”

Most Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks involve hackers activating malware unknowingly installed on user computers and devices over a wide area. IP addresses are not a “smoking gun” for the origin of a cyber attack, and IP addresses are easily spoofed. The services likely used to carry out the attack target the “Internet of Things” (IoT) to turn them into zombies. IoT can include anything connected to the web that isn’t a PC, tablet, or smartphone, such as routers, security cameras, thermostats, streaming media boxes, and even home appliances. Given Musk’s experience with software and cyber security, he should know this.

When Musk spoke to Kudlow, the hacker group Dark Storm Team had already claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel.

Dark Storm was founded in 2023 and primarily targets Israel and NATO Alliance countries, according to the Cyber Intelligence Bureau of Epidemiology Lab. Since its formation, the group has also targeted Egypt, India, Ukraine, Brazil, Kenya, and the United Arab Emirates.

The pro-Palestinian cybercriminals are in a coalition with approximately five other hacker groups, including the Russia-based and Kremlin-backed Killnet and the Russia-based Bluenet Russia. They are self-financed and offer hacking services for hire. Its primary goal is to exploit political and religious differences in support of a Palestinian state and the Palestinian people.

Other members of the Dark Storm Team coalition include Anonymous Sudan, Ghosts of Palestine, and SN_BLACKMETA, which is based in Sudan. To conduct DDoS attacks, Darm Storm has used ZeusAPI, which was sold to Aleksandr Andreevich Panin in 2012. Panin, a Russian citizen and co-founder of SpyEye, was arrested and convicted of cybercrimes in 2016. Despite his arrest, ZeusAPI is still updated and used today.

Channel DDoS V2 and Krypton Networks are also DDoS “as a service” tools that anyone can buy. The home base for Krypton Networks (not to be confused with the gaming company based in the U.K. that uses the same name) is unknown, but they have dedicated Russian and Chinese-language Telegram pages. It is unclear where Channel DDoS V2 is based. According to cyber security experts, possibilities include Argentina, Germany, the Netherlands, and Indonesia.

According to Info Security Magazine, ZeusAPI, Channel DDoS V2, and Krypton Networks services were used for the majority of cyberattacks against the United States in the first half of 2024.

Is There Another Agenda

The attack and the thinly veiled implication that Ukraine was behind it come less than 24 hours before U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators are supposed to meet in Saudi Arabia. The meeting is meant to stabilize relations between Ukraine and its potential former ally, restore the minerals deal, and convince Washington to restart intelligence sharing and military aid.

Musk’s latest accusation follows a weekend of events meant to portray Ukraine and its allies in a negative light.

On Saturday, Vice President JD Vance exaggerated his interaction with pro-Ukrainian protesters in Cincinnati, Ohio, accusing them of chasing him and his 3-year-old daughter. Video of the impromptu discussion appears to show Vance approached the group, and his Secret Service detail did not see them as a threat. Most of the talking was between an older woman and the Vice President. There was no evidence that he was chased.

Responding to a different video recorded near Vance’s home that circulated on Saturday, William Martin, the Press Secretary of Vance, wrote, “Anyone that’s ever been here knows Jimmy [Rushton] is full of shit because the video of these Slava Ukraini scumbags harassing the Vice President’s daughter takes place on a completely different street nearby.”

Early on Sunday morning, after Musk, President Donald Trump, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Musk appeared to threaten to turn off Starlink service to Ukraine. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski responded on Twitter, writing, “Starlinks for Ukraine are paid by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year. The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for suppliers.”

Musk quickly responded, writing on Twitter, “Be quiet, small man. You pay a tiny fraction of the cost. And there is no substitute for Starlink.”

Secretary Rubio then defended Musk. “Just making things up. No one has made any threats about cutting Ukraine off from Starlink. And say thank you because without Starlink Ukraine would have lost this war long ago and Russia would be on the border of Poland right now.”

As a point of order, the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad already shares a border with Poland.

Appearing to go into damage control mode on Sunday evening, Musk then wrote, “To be extremely clear, no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals.”

Early on Monday morning, the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, didn’t consider the spat over. “True leadership means respect for partners and allies, Tusk said, “Even for the smaller and weaker ones. Never arrogance. Dear friends, think about it.”

On Monday morning, Musk called Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) a “traitor” for traveling to Ukraine to meet with government officials. Kelly is a decorated war veteran and naval aviator with over 5,000 flight hours and hundreds of carrier landings. He conducted 39 combat sorties during Operation Desert Storm.

Kelly was also a NASA astronaut. He was on STS-108, the pilot for STS-121, and the commander for STS-124 and STS-134.

A member of the Democratic party, he was elected to the Senate in 2020.

Kelly responded to Musk on Twitter. “Traitor?” he wrote, “Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do.”

Jonathan Chait, a write with The Atlantic, called Musk’s accusation “rather odd,” adding, “unless one considered Ukraine an enemy of the United States. Where Musk is going, Trump is likely to follow.”

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