What is DDoS attack? Cyber threat hits X before Trump's interview with Musk

The DDoS attack on X (formerly Twitter) delayed the highly-anticipated Donald Trump interview with Elon Musk by 40 minutes

The highly-anticipated Donald Trump interview with Elon Musk ran into technical glitches as X (formerly Twitter) faced a DDoS attack.

The tech billionaire flagged the cyber attack saying, "There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on X. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later."

Musk's statement came after his interview with the former US President missed its scheduled time (8 pm ET). However, the interview, which started 40 minutes after the predetermined time due to the DDoS attack, went on smoothly following the initial delay. Trump's interview marked his return to the microblogging platform ahead of the US Presidential elections due in November.

In his latest post on X, Musk said that the combined views of his conversation with Donald Trump (and subsequent discussion by other accounts) have touched the 1 billion mark.

What is a DDoS attack?

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service. A DDoS attack disrupts a targeted server or network's normal traffic by flooding the target or its surrounding infrastructure with internet traffic. The attackers flood the targeted site with errant traffic, resulting in poor website functionality or knocking it offline altogether.

According to a Microsoft webpage, during a DDoS attack, multiple computers storm one computer during an attack, pushing out legitimate users. As a result, service can be delayed or otherwise disrupted for a length of time.

How long can a DDoS attack last?

A DDoS attack can last hours or even days.

The largest attack in history, according to Fortinet, occurred in February 2020 when Amazon Web Services (AWS) was targeted.

What does a DDoS attack do?

Ramifications of DDoS attacks include a drop in legitimate traffic, lost business, and reputation damage.

A DDoS attack may be carried out by disgruntled individuals and hacktivists wanting to take down a company's servers simply to make a statement. Such attacks may also be financially motivated with attackers forcing the victim to pay a large financial sum.