Hackers Shut Down Bluesky a Second Time This Year

Bluesky is back online after enduring a massive, day-long disruption caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Sunday. This marks the second major cyberattack to knock the burgeoning social platform offline in recent months as it continues its bid to compete with X (formerly Twitter).

In a statement posted publicly, the platform confirmed that junk traffic flooded its infrastructure over 24 hours. “We have upgraded our defenses in response, and we continue to monitor the situation,” Bluesky noted, though representatives offered no additional details regarding the vector of the attack.

Key Breakdown

• The Attack: Massive amounts of automated junk traffic flooded network infrastructure over a 24-hour window, knocking out feeds and causing ephemeral port exhaustion that left millions staring at error pages. Even IFTTT connections were knocked offline.
• Who Is Behind It: Security researchers discussing the incident in public forums report that Iranian-backed cyber operations—specifically the 313 Team—have claimed responsibility, coinciding with broader targeted campaigns against U.S. digital infrastructure.
• A Recurring Issue: The platform faced a similar prolonged outage back in April due to traffic bombardment. While both incidents resulted in widespread blackouts, it remains unconfirmed whether the same botnets executed both attacks.

Despite the operational headaches, Bluesky continues to build out its features and expand its ecosystem beyond its initial invite-only launch days. However, as its user base scales, recurring infrastructure threats remain its steepest hurdle.