WASHINGTON — U.S. officials have not determined who was behind an apparent cyber attack on the social media site X that limited access to the platform for thousands of users, according to a Trump administration official familiar with the ongoing investigation into the matter.
Monday’s outage was described as a cyber attack by the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly on the matter and spoke Tuesday on the condition of anonymity. The official added that the Republican administration takes all cyber attacks against American companies seriously but underscored that the U.S. government had not gleaned any specific intelligence about who might have been behind the attack.
The comments came after Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and a top adviser to President Donald Trump, claimed in an appearance on Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow” show that the cyber attackers had “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area” without going into detail on what that might mean.
Cybersecurity experts quickly pointed out, however, that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the attack originated in Ukraine.
Musk bought what was then Twitter in 2022 and serves as the CEO of Tesla, all while effectively running Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
His electric vehicle company has faced some headwinds as he’s become the face of Trump’s effort to dramatically shrink the size of the government through DOGE. Its stock plunged 15% on Monday, its biggest one-day loss since September 2020.
Analysts have said Musk’s shift to right-wing politics doesn’t appear to sit well with potential Tesla buyers, generally perceived to be wealthy, environmentally conscious liberals who have turned to electric vehicles in an attempt to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
Tesla has also been a target of protests and vandalism in the U.S. and elsewhere over Musk’s push for large-scale federal government layoffs, contract cancellations and other budget slashing moves.
Trump said on his social media platform that he’ll buy a Tesla on Tuesday to demonstrate “confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American.”
“Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???” Trump said.