The large-scale disruption of ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) services in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) signals the change of tactics of hackers. Cybersecurity experts point out that hackers now consider social media as a new form of critical infrastructure and launching large-scale attacks.

A DDoS attack is when hackers flood a website with fake traffic, overwhelming it and making it unavailable to real users. It’s like a digital traffic jam.

Elon Musk, owner of X, attributed these disruptions to a massive cyber attack, suggesting involvement from a large, coordinated group and/or a country due to the significant resources employed.

“This incident highlights a pivot we’re seeing in the motivation behind cyber threats: what used to be straightforward data theft and exfiltration has shifted to full-scale digital disruption. We’ve seen this play out in critical infrastructure sectors like energy, but social media platforms like X are now emerging as a new form of critical infrastructure and should be treated as such,”  Andy Thompson, Senior Cyber Researcher, CyberArk Labs, has said.

The problem is that these platforms are built for engagement, not resilience. Attackers know this and are treating them as digital battlegrounds because taking a platform offline can be just as damaging as stealing data.

Chaos of attribution

Complicating matters further is the chaos of attribution we’re seeing play out. Cyberattacks today resemble crime scenes with multiple fingerprints, as hacktivist groups, cybercriminals, and nation-states are all working in parallel or jockeying for credit.

“Claiming responsibility is easy, but proving who’s behind it is far more difficult. And when multiple actors rush to take credit, one thing becomes clear: the real objective is disruption itself, not just the message,” he said.

“The Dark Storm Team has taken credit for the assault on X, consistent with their broader goal of destabilising 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,” Check Point Check Point Research said.

Notably, in February, organisations in the US faced an average of 1,323 cyber-attacks each week, with the Media and Entertainment sector ranking as the fourth most targeted industry, it said.