Exploring Internet traffic shifts and cyber attacks during the 2024 US election

The US presidential election on November 5, 2024 saw a significant increase in cyberattacks targeting political and election-related websites, with Cloudflare automatically mitigating over 6 billion HTTP DDoS requests. However, no significant disruptions were observed due to proactive defenses. Internet traffic peaked after the first polling stations closed, showing a 15% increase compared to the previous week. The most significant traffic increases were observed in Maine, South Dakota, and Montana. DNS traffic for news media outlets rose significantly right after 09:00 ET (06:00 PT), peaking between 22:00 and 23:00 ET (19:00 and 20:00 PT) with a 325% increase from the previous week. Polling services websites also saw a notable rise in DNS traffic, peaking at 13:00 ET (10:00 PT) with a 206% increase from the previous week.