Bigger and badder: how DDoS attack sizes have evolved over the last decade

The world of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks is evolving, with attackers leveraging cloud-hosted virtual machines to launch massive and sophisticated attacks. Over the last decade, DDoS attack sizes have grown exponentially, with a significant increase in requests per second, packets per second, and bits per second. The largest attacks now reach terabits per second, with some attacks reaching 3.8 Tbps. This growth is attributed to the increasing use of cloud-hosted virtual machines, which enable attackers to launch large-scale attacks without the complexities involved in infecting and managing fleets of IoT devices. Cloudflare has mitigated over 14.5 million DDoS attacks since 2024, with automation playing a crucial role in detecting and blocking these attacks. The company's Connectivity Cloud uses machine learning algorithms, global traffic distribution, and layered defense to protect against DDoS attacks, providing tailored protection for individual customers.