The news: Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks—which overwhelm a server or network with simultaneous traffic from multiple sources—rose 358% in volume YoY and 198% QoQ, nearly matching 2024’s full-year total in just three months.

Cloudflare, a content delivery network (CDN) serving over 20% of global web traffic and 35% of the Fortune 500, blocked 20.5 million DDoS attacks in Q1 2025.

Of these cybersecurity incidents, 6.6 million attacks directly targeted Cloudflare’s infrastructure, signaling attackers’ attempts to cause service disruption at scale, per the CDN’s 2025 Q1 DDoS Threat Report.

Key drivers behind the unprecedented spike:

• Expansion of IoT botnets. Insecure smart devices fuel massive botnets like Mirai, enabling larger, more frequent attacks.
• Geopolitical tensions. State-sponsored actors and hacktivists increasingly weaponize DDoS in cyber conflicts.
• Ransom and extortion. Attackers use short, hyper-volumetric strikes to cripple businesses for quick payouts.
• Cheaper attack tools. DDoS-for-hire services and AI-powered automation lower barriers to execution.

Why it’s worth watching: Cyberattack targets are shifting.

• Education, government, healthcare and medical, and telecommunications made up the majority of industries targeted by weekly cyberattacks worldwide in 2024, per Check Point.
• Cloudflare found that recent attacks surged across telecom, gaming, and gambling, with cybersecurity and aerospace emerging as surprise targets, indicating that no industries are safe from DDoS threats.

Geographically, Germany, Turkey, and China bore the brunt of attacks, while Hong Kong and Indonesia led attack sources.

Key takeaway: DDoS attacks are only going to get worse. For marketers, a surge in cyberattacks can cause downtime that tanks campaign performance and reduces customer trust and revenues.

Protecting digital experiences requires preemptive investment in always-on mitigation, risk tolerance, and infrastructure resilience—especially during high-traffic launches or campaigns.