Elon Musk-Donald Trump interview disrupted by cyber attack: What is DDoS attack?
Elon Musk's interview with Donald Trump on X was delayed by a DDoS attack, overwhelming the platform with excessive traffic. The attack disrupted the scheduled event, leading Musk to proceed with a limited audience at 8:30 PM ET, promising to share the unedited audio afterwards despite the setback.
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FollowElon Musk's much-anticipated interview with Donald Trump was disrupted by a DDoS attack, as confirmed by Musk on X (formerly known as Twitter). The interview, originally scheduled for 8 PM ET, faced significant delays after the platform was targeted by this cyber assault, which compromised its functionality.
What is a DDoS attack?
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a form of cyberattack that overwhelms websites and servers with excessive, errant traffic, exhausting an application’s resources. This leads to poor performance or even a total shutdown of the targeted site. These attacks can persist for hours or even days, resulting in multiple disruptions within a single incident.
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Microsoft explains that during a DDoS attack, numerous computers flood a single system with traffic, pushing out legitimate users and leading to delays or interruptions in service. In severe cases, hackers can infiltrate the system’s database and access sensitive information. DDoS attacks exploit security vulnerabilities and can target any publicly accessible endpoint on the internet.
The DDoS attack on X not only delayed the conversation between Musk and Trump but also demonstrated the vulnerability of even the most robust platforms to such coordinated assaults. Musk addressed the attack in a post, saying, "It seems there's a massive DDoS attack on X. We're working to stop it. In the worst case, we'll continue with fewer live listeners and share the conversation later."
Earlier in the day, Musk had tested the platform with 8 million concurrent listeners in preparation for the interview. However, due to the DDoS attack, he announced that the interview would proceed at 8:30 PM ET with a limited audience. "We'll move forward with a smaller number of concurrent listeners at 8:30 ET and then share the unedited audio right afterwards," Musk confirmed in a follow-up post.
Despite the disruption, Musk remained committed to ensuring the interview would be available to the public, though with some inevitable delays.
