Elon Musk faces cyberattack fallout amid business hurdles
"We’re not sure exactly what happened. But there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area," said platform owner and US presidential advisor Elon Musk.
The businessman shared this in an interview with Larry Kudlow, a former advisor to US President Donald Trump, broadcast on Fox Business television. He referred to Monday's several-hour disruptions in the platform's operations.
Musk admitted he does not know exactly what happened, but suspicions were directed towards Ukraine. "There was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area," reiterated Musk.
Earlier, the hacker group Dark Storm claimed responsibility for the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack in a post on Telegram. As noted by the ZDNet portal, the cybersecurity firm Orange Cyberdefense described this group in 2023 as motivated by pro-Palestinian sympathies and "unconfirmed," but "highly probable" ties to Russia. Previously, Dark Storm's attacks, including ransomware extortion, targeted companies in Israel and NATO countries.
Musk also addressed issues related to his other companies' activities. He mentioned protests at Tesla sales points and a series of vandalism incidents, as well as the sharp decline in Tesla's stock value, which has fallen by 40% over the past month, with a 15% drop just on Monday.
"It is tough sledding, but I think we are doing the right thing here," he said, referring to his role as the informal leader of team DOGE, which aims to cut unnecessary budget expenditures. He once again promised that, unless halted, DOGE would lead to saving 1 trillion dollars. He claimed that so far he has managed to save money at a rate of 4 billion dollars a day.
According to the information on the DOGE website, the current savings amount to 105 billion dollars. However, analyses by sources including the "New York Times" and AP suggest they are greatly exaggerated.
Business and politics: Musk complains about "difficulties"
In addition to Tesla and X, Musk owns SpaceX, the tunnel boring company Boring Company, the brain implant company Neuralink, and the artificial intelligence enterprise xAI.
When asked how he manages to reconcile leading these businesses with his work in the White House, the billionaire responded, "with great difficulty."
