Hackers to Target Elon Musk For a 'Full Month': What to Know

A group of hackers that previously targeted President Donald Trump has pledged to take aim at Elon Musk for the next month.

DonRoad Team, which previously claimed responsibility for taking down several Trump-associated websites, announced Monday it would begin hitting sites linked to Elon Musk.

Newsweek contacted Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twittter) and the Department of Government Efficiency via email for comment outside of normal office hours on Tuesday.

The Context

Elon Musk has increasing become a target of backlash as a result of his prominent role in the Trump administration as the head of DOGE. Musk remains popular with many Americans, but his approval rating has dipped underwater.

His tech companies have become rallying points for his critics.

What To Know

"In the next few hours, we will be suspending all websites affiliated with Elon Musk companies for a full month," the hackers said in a 9.34 pm ET post on Monday via messaging service Telegram.

The group has previously claimed responsibility for targeting The Trump Organization's website, along with the Tesla and SpaceX email servers in March, all of which temporarily reported global failures at the time.

The news comes a month after Twitter was targeted by a group of pro-Palestinian hackers who managed to disable the site for several hours.

In March, Musk's X suffered at least three major outages after a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, a type of cyberattack which uses bots to shut down devices or networks by overwhelming them with traffic. The Dark Storm Team group claimed responsibiity.

A separate cyberattack in February saw the website for the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk runs, edited to make fun of him and his team.

The site temporarily displayed the message: "This is a joke of a .gov site," written in large letters alongside: "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN".

What People Are Saying

Oded Vanunu, Chief Technologist for WEB 3.0 and Head of Product Vulnerability at Check Point Software, told Newsweek that the last round of hacks against Twitter should have prompted a security upgrade, saying: "For businesses and organizations, this reinforces the need for stronger cyber security defenses, especially against DDoS attacks, which can cripple online services.

"As these threats evolve, both users and companies should stay informed, have alternative communication channels, and be prepared for possible future disruptions."

What Happens Next

At time of publication, there were no reported outages across Musk's most prominent websites. DonRoad Team said the cyberattacks will take place throughout April.