Thought Leadership
The social media platform X (formerly Twitter) struggled with several significant outages yesterday. In a post, platform owner Elon Musk pointed to a “massive cyberattack” as the cause and hinted at an extensive, coordinated operation. Now the perpetrators have come forward.
According to Check Point Research (CPR), the hacker group “Dark Storm Team” is the possible perpetrator. According to the researchers’ findings, it is a pro-Palestinian collective that has become active again after a dormant phase and specializes in DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.
Systematic attacks on Western infrastructure
The Dark Storm Team’s activities are primarily directed against Western institutions, including organizations in the USA, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel. In recent months, security researchers have recorded successful attacks by the group on critical infrastructure, including several US airports, the port of Haifa in Israel and the IT systems of the UAE Ministry of Defense.
“The Dark Storm team has claimed responsibility for the attack on X,” explained Check Point Research. “The group appears to have one overarching goal: to destabilize key digital platforms and infrastructure.” The current incident underlines the growing importance of robust cyber security measures for social media services as central communication platforms.
Media and entertainment industry in our sights
The attack is part of a worrying trend. According to the latest Cyber Security Report 2025 from Check Point Research, companies in the USA were confronted with an average of 1,323 cyberattacks per week in February 2025 alone. The media and entertainment sector ranks fourth among the most frequently attacked industries.
