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The social media giant, X, formerly known as Twitter, is currently going through a crisis as it faced numerous outages, not only in the US but globally. Elon Musk, the owner of X, was quick enough to connect these disturbances to a "massive cyberattack". The 53-year-old tech billionaire also suggested that a "large, coordinated group, and/or a country" could be behind these attacks, as it would require serious resources.
According to Check Point Research (CPR), these attacks on X were orchestrated by the hacktivist collective known as The Dark Storm Team. They admitted it was them who were behind the assault on the social media giant X. The Dark Storm Team focuses and specializes in DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.
However, we'll discuss The Dark Storm Team in detail, but before that, let's find out what a DDoS attack is, as most people have no idea about it. A DDoS, or a Distributed Denial of Service attack, is primarily a cybercrime in which the hacker or the attacker interrupts by creating a disturbance to a targeted server, network, or service, flooding them with a huge amount of internet traffic, stopping users from accessing websites and other connected online services.
For example, imagine a DDoS attack to be like a massive traffic jam obstructing an entire highway, stopping all the regular traffic from reaching its actual destination.
For an even better and clearer understanding of how a DDoS attack works, check out below the X post shared by a cybersecurity and tech page called Security Trybe. It'll help you wrap your head around how a DDoS attack functions.
Who are The Dark Storm Team?
Now that you have a clear understanding of what a DDoS attack is and how it works, let's focus on The Dark Storm Team. As per Check Point Security, known for providing accurate cyber intelligence, the hacktivist collective is infamous for attacking organizations and governments that are in favour of Israel. Allegedly, the pro-Palestinian collective has come into prominence once again and has orchestrated the recent attacks on Elon Musk's X.
The group mainly targets Western entities, as well as organizations that are a part of Israel, America, Ukraine, and the UAE. The Dark Storm Team, not too long ago, attacked the UAE's Ministry of Defence, the Los Angeles Airport, Israel's Haifa Port, and hospitals.
A quote from Check Point Research states:
"The Dark Storm Team has taken credit for the assault on X, consistent with their broader goal of destabilizing prominent digital platforms and infrastructure. This event highlights the essential need for strong cyber security protocols for social media platforms, which play a key role in worldwide communication. Notably, in February, organizations in the US faced an average of 1,323 cyber-attacks each week, with the Media & Entertainment sector ranking as the fourth most targeted industry.”
The Dark Storm Team's attack on X resulted in a major outage, with over 40,000 reports of service disturbances on March 10, 2025. People across India, Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK were affected by the attack, as they could not access X on their smartphones or through the web.
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