Musk says X taken down by massive cyberattack based in Ukraine

Earlier this week, X experienced some serious downtime, which Musk later explained as being a massive cyberattack.  

Clearly, that was likely the case, but what really stirred things up was when Musk stated that the attack appeared to have come from ISP addresses in Ukraine.  

Under attack 

Musk was on Fox Business the afternoon after the attack took place, stating, “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.” The problem with his statement is twofold.  

First, Musk did not provide any evidence to back up his claim, so at this point, all we have on this is his word.  

Second, Musk no longer speaks only for Elon Musk, as he is now a top adviser to President Trump. Given the political temperature in this country right now, making a statement like that has significant repercussions.  

There was immediate push back after Musk made his statement. For instance, the Atlantic Council’s Alex Plitsas stated, “It makes absolutely no sense for Ukrainian hackers to attack Elon Musk the day before a meeting between the United States and Ukraine in which they are attempting to get the United States to start sharing intelligence again, and provide aid and assistance, working towards a peace agreement that has been in question since the Oval Office visit.” 

Musk and the election 

Now, for those of you asking me how I can dare doubt Musk is telling the truth, I bring up his past record of statements. 

Musk has gone all-in with Trump, including suggesting that Trump won the 2020 election. And before any of you start going off on me saying that Trump did win, let me ask you one simple question... if Trump did win in 2020, then why did people like Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), arguably Trump’s biggest ally in the House, not find evidence to overturn the election? If anyone would have found it, it would have been Jordan. 

Musk had been pushing the narrative that Michigan’s voter rolls were loaded with ineligible voters who would be corrected only after the election, posting, "You only plan to remove the ineligible voters AFTER the election. That necessarily means that there are far more people registered to vote than there are eligible voters." 

Now, voter rolls in this country are notoriously behind, meaning there are usually voters who have moved out of state or who have passed who remain on rolls during an election, but that number is still generally low. Now, you guys all know this is a passionate issue for me, but there are simply not enough voters on these rolls to flip a federal election, not even close. So, for me, this was just a bad look for Musk.  

Musk and DOGE  

I have stated repeatedly that I love the concept of DOGE, and I think Musk is the ideal person to scan line items to find waste and fraud.  

Having said that, Musk has inflated some numbers and misrepresented some of the information in programs where he wanted to make cuts. In Musk’s current position, this is a HUGE deal, as he has to be more precise.  

As an example, in one statement, Musk claimed to have found a diversity program in ICE that was costing taxpayers $8 billion, half of the $16 billion DOGE claims to have found in waste in these programs. The real figure was $8 million, so Musk was just a little off there. A slip of the tongue or keyboard stroke error does not matter in this case because, again, the media jumped all over him and pushed it as misinformation on his part.  

Here is my point... Musk has joined Trump in often over-dramatizing things by throwing out sensationalistic statements to get people’s attention. While generally rooted in fact, they are not always 100 percent true, and that is a problem in his current role. I hope for his sake and that of this administration, he was not exaggerating or misrepresenting the Ukraine claim because if he was, this is not just a lie, but a national security issue when you consider the tension between the United States and Ukraine, as well as the current war between Ukraine and Russia.