Cloudflare has just compiled a summary of DDoS attacks that occurred during the first quarter of 2025. As the American company indicates in its report, Cloudflare's services blocked a total of 20.5 million denial of service attacks during the period. This is "a 358% increase year-over-year" and "a 198% increase quarter-over-quarter".
At For comparison, Cloudflare recorded 21.3 million DDoS attacks in the entirety of last year. In a single quarter, the company specialized in "blocked 96% of what we blocked in 2024". In short, it's an all-time high for the number of attacks.In a DDoS attack, hackers send a huge number of requests to a site to overload it and make it inaccessible. This methodis often used to convey a message or protest online against governments or companies. It is notably used by hacktivists.
A new record: a powerful DDoS attack blocked by Cloudflare
A third of the cyberattacks mitigated by Cloudflare directly targeted the group's network infrastructure. The company explains that it was the target of an "18-day multi-vector attack campaign". This campaign relied on several different types of attacks in the hopes of bypassing the company's protections. The attackers notably used the Mirai botnet. The botnet, which appeared over a decade ago, primarily targeted IoT (Internet of Things) devices, such as smart cameras, routers, and other smart devices, exploiting default credentials or weak passwords. Since the virus's source code was leaked online, numerous Mirai variants have been found on criminal markets. Cloudflare also revealed that it has recorded a record cyberattack during the month of April 2025. This DDoS attack reached a peak of 5.8 terabits for approximately 45 seconds. This is the most powerful DDoS attack of all time, ahead of the 5.6 terabits per second offensive last October. This unit measures the amount of digital data. During a DDoS attack, it indicates the volume of data sent to the servers of the targeted site. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince says another, even more powerful DDoS attack has recently been recorded, and details will be shared shortly.
As Cloudflare points out in its quarterly report, high-powered DDoS attacks tend to increase. During “the second half of April 2025, Cloudflare's systems automatically detected and blocked dozens of very large DDoS attacks, carried out as part of a particularly intense campaign”. The attacks were short-lived, lasting between 35 and 45 seconds, but they caused enormous damage by triggering a chain reaction. These disruptions can "take several days to fully repair, during which time services remain inaccessible or malfunction", Cloudflare says.
Source: Cloudflare
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