A Year of Unprecedented Cyberattacks

In a shocking announcement, internet titan Cloudflare unveiled that it repelled a record-breaking number of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 2024, experiencing a jaw-dropping 358% increase compared to the previous year. This staggering total amounted to a whopping 21.3 million attacks!

But hold onto your seats—2025 is shaping up to be even worse! Just within the first quarter, Cloudflare has already thwarted an eye-popping 20.5 million DDoS assaults.

Direct Hits on Cloudflare's Infrastructure

Among these cyber onslaughts, a notable 6.6 million targeted Cloudflare's own network infrastructure. These were part of an intense 18-day multi-vector campaign riddled with aggressive SYN flood attacks, Mirai-generated DDoS assaults, and SSDP amplification strikes.

Network-Layer Attacks on the Rise!

The main culprit behind this surge? Network-layer DDoS attacks skyrocketed with a staggering 509% year-over-year growth. In addition, hyper-volumetric attacks have been rampant, with Cloudflare reporting over 700 instances where attack bandwidth exceeded a jaw-dropping 1 terabit per second!

These hyper-volumetric attacks have doubled in frequency compared to the previous quarter, averaging eight daily during Q1 of 2025.

New Threats on the Horizon

Cloudflare identified two emerging threats in the first quarter of 2025: Connectionless Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) attack variants and Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) reflection/amplification attacks.

CLDAP variants surged by an astounding 3,488% since last quarter, exploiting the speed of UDP to bypass traditional defenses. Meanwhile, ESP attacks saw a 2,301% increase, often arising from misconfigurations in exposed systems.

Gaming Servers Under Siege

A particularly alarming attack targeted a US-based hosting provider for popular multiplayer gaming servers like Counter-Strike GO and Team Fortress 2. This hyper-volumetric assault hit port 27015, reaching a staggering 1.5 billion packets per second but was ultimately mitigated.

Gaming servers are prime targets for DDoS attacks since disruptions can wreak havoc on entire communities.

World's Largest DDoS Attack Revealed!

In a recent tweet, Cloudflare’s CEO, Matthew Prince, disclosed the company had countered an unprecedented DDoS attack peaking at 5.8 terabits per second lasting 45 seconds! This attack surpassed the previous record of 5.6 terabits per second from a Mirai-based botnet of 13,000 devices.

Prince hinted at an even larger attack that occurred the same day, fueling speculation about what lies ahead in the ongoing battle against DDoS threats.