Cloudflare’s latest security report reveals an alarming escalation in DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack activity, with the company intercepting 21.3 million attacks throughout 2024 – a staggering 358% increase compared to the previous year. The trend continues to accelerate, with 20.5 million attacks blocked in Q1 2025 alone, signaling an unprecedented surge in cyber threats.
Unprecedented 18-Day Attack Campaign Against Cloudflare Infrastructure
A particularly notable incident involved a sustained multi-vector attack campaign targeting Cloudflare’s own infrastructure. The 18-day assault generated 6.6 million attack attempts, employing sophisticated techniques including SYN flooding, Mirai botnets, and SSDP amplification. This coordinated campaign demonstrates the evolving complexity and persistence of modern DDoS threats.
Surge in Hypervolume DDoS Attacks
The cybersecurity landscape has witnessed a significant increase in hypervolume attacks, with over 700 incidents exceeding either 1 Tbps or 1 billion packets per second. Q1 2025 averaged eight such attacks daily, representing a 100% increase from the previous quarter. This escalation highlights the growing capability of threat actors to marshal massive attack resources.
Gaming Infrastructure Under Siege
A notable attack targeted a major U.S. gaming server host supporting popular titles like Counter-Strike GO and Team Fortress 2. The assault, focusing on port 27015, reached an intensity of 1.5 billion packets per second. While successfully mitigated by Cloudflare’s protection systems, this incident underscores the gaming sector’s vulnerability to DDoS attacks.
New DDoS Volume Records
Cloudflare recently thwarted an attack peaking at 5.8 Tbps, surpassing the previous record of 5.6 Tbps set earlier in 2025. Though brief at 45 seconds, this record-breaking incident demonstrates the rapidly expanding scale of DDoS capabilities available to attackers.
The dramatic increase in both frequency and magnitude of DDoS attacks represents a critical inflection point in cybersecurity threats. Organizations must prioritize robust DDoS mitigation strategies, implementing multi-layered defense mechanisms and maintaining continuous security monitoring. The evolution of these attacks emphasizes the necessity for businesses to partner with experienced security providers capable of handling increasingly sophisticated and powerful cyber threats. As attack vectors continue to evolve, proactive defense strategies and scalable protection solutions become essential components of modern cybersecurity architecture.
