DarkStorm Team: Unmasking Their Role in Yesterday’s X Outage :

Disruptions caused by outages that X (formerly Twitter) encountered claimed services globally yesterday. Idle comments from Elon Musk regarding the outage were later attributed to a hacktivist group known as DarkStorm Team that are notorious for cyberattacks on western institutions and which has recently adopted a pro-Palestinian stance. This group is believed to have initiated the attack through Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), creating widespread connectivity problems.

Cyberattack and X service disruption

Around 6 AM from Eastern Time, the service disruption began to be noticed by users from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. This was recorded by Downdetector which had over 41,000 reported cases of ‘service disruption’ within two days. Many users were unable to log into their accounts and were provided services timeouts. In a short time after, a screenshot demonstrating failed connections globally was shared by DarkStorm Team via Telegram which helped them claim responsibility.

Musk palyed openly into the hands of the hactivists and claimed that it was the other way around and referred to it a severe form of cyberterrorism by labeling it Another big claim by the so-called “cure” for social media as a platform was this: “X’s musketeers got stronger with hoaxes and lies.”

What is the DarkStormTeam?

This collective gained notoriety first in September 2023 and started placing themselves in the financial and geopolitical battlefield as a pro-Palestinian hacktivist group.

The group has a history of multiple cyber attacks since then and as has been linked to multiple cyberattacks, including ransomware incidents, data breaches, and targeted DDoS operations. Their previous targets have included government institutions, financial organisations, and transportation infrastructure across Israel, the United States, and NATO-aligned countries. Cybersecurity analysts have identified potential affiliations between the DarkStorm Team and other hacktivist groups such as Killnet, Anonymous Sudan, and Ghosts of Palestine. The group allegedly collaborates with underground networks that offer cyberattack services for hire. The technique DarkStorm Team relies on utilizes DDoS-as-a-Service tools, ransomware campaigns, and information leaks to disrupt their targets. They use encrypted communication channels like Telegram for coordination and recruitment. Their attacks often aim to promote ideological narratives while financially benefiting from the sale of stolen data on darknet marketplaces. While the group presents itself as a hacktivist organisation, security experts suspect potential nation-state backing, particularly from Russia, given their targeting patterns and attack sophistication.