Elon Musk blames cyberattack on Ukraine; Tesla stock plunges
"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 the platform owner and advisor to the U.S. president, Elon Musk.
The businessman conveyed this in an interview with Larry Kudlow, a former advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, broadcast on Fox Business. He referred to Monday's several-hour disruptions in the platform's functioning.
Musk admitted that he did not know precisely what had happened, but his suspicions were directed toward Ukraine. "There was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area," said Elon Musk, the platform's owner and advisor to the U.S. president.
Earlier, the hacker group Dark Storm claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) in a post on Telegram. As noted by the portal ZDNet, the cybersecurity firm Orange Cyberdefense described this group in 2023 as motivated by pro-Palestinian sympathies and "unconfirmed," but "highly probable" connections with Russia. Previously, Dark Storm's attacks, including ransomware extortions, targeted companies in Israel and NATO countries.
Musk also addressed problems related to his other companies' activities. He mentioned protests at Tesla sales points, a series of vandalism incidents, and sharp drops in Tesla's stock value, which fell by 40% over the past month, including a 15% drop 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 the DOGE team, which aims to reduce unnecessary budget expenditures. Once again, he promised that—unless someone stops them—DOGE will lead to saving $1 trillion. He claimed that so far he has managed to save money at a rate of $4 billion per day.
According to information on the DOGE website, the current savings amount to $105 billion, but according to analyses by sources including "The New York Times" and AP, they are greatly exaggerated.
Business and politics. Musk complains about "difficulties"
In addition to Tesla and X, Musk also owns SpaceX, the tunnel-boring company Boring Company, Neuralink, a company working on brain implants, and xAI, a company developing artificial intelligence.
When asked how he reconciles running these businesses with his work at the White House, the billionaire responded, "with great difficulty."
