SECURITY
SECURITY
SECURITY
Cloudflare detects and mitigates largest-ever DDoS attack on record
Content delivery network provider Cloudflare Inc. revealed today that it has managed to detect and mitigate dozens of “hyper-volumetric” distributed denial-of-service attacks over the weekend of Feb. 11-12, including the largest reported HTTP DDoS attack on record.
The majority of the DDoS attacks peaked at about 50 million to 70 million requests per second, with the largest exceeding 71 million rps (pictured). The largest attack was 35% higher than the previously reported HTTP DDoS record of 46 million rps in June 2022.
According to Cloudflare, the attacks were HTTP/2-based and originated from over 30,000 IP addresses. Some of the targeted websites protected by Cloudflare included a popular gaming provider, cryptocurrency companies, hosting providers and cloud computing platforms.
The attacks originated from numerous cloud providers, with Cloudflare working with the unnamed providers to crack down on the botnet used in the DDoS attacks. The company notes that it has seen more attacks originate from cloud computing providers over the last year.
In response to cloud computing providers being used as attack points, Cloudflare is offering a free botnet threat feed for service providers. The feed gives providers threat intelligence about their own IP space and attack originating from within their autonomous systems.
The motivation for the attacks at the weekend is unclear, with Cloudflare saying they were neither related to the Super Bowl nor to Killnet. A DDoS attack from the Russian Killnet hacking group targeted healthcare organizations earlier this month.
Cloudflare noted that there had been an increase in the size and sophistication of DDoS attacks over the last few months. In its fourth-quarter DDoS threat report released in January, Cloudflare found that the number of HTTP DDoS attacks increased 79% year-over-year and that the number of volumetric attacks exceeding 100 gigabits per second grew 67% quarter-over-year.
The size of DDoS attacks has also been increasing every year. The record as of June 14 last year sat at 26 million rps before Google Cloud said in August said it had fended off a DDoS attack that peaked at 46 million rps also in June. The number of Ransom DDoS attacks has also increased, with one in every four Cloudflare customers reporting to have been subject to a Ransom DDOS attack or threats.
Image: Cloudflare
A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:
Support our open free content by sharing and engaging with our content and community.
Join theCUBE Alumni Trust Network
Where Technology Leaders Connect, Share Intelligence & Create Opportunities
11.4k+
CUBE Alumni Network
C-level and Technical
Domain Experts
15M+
theCUBE
Viewers
Connect with 11,413+ industry leaders from our network of tech and business leaders forming a unique trusted network effect.
SiliconANGLE Media is a recognized leader in digital media innovation serving innovative audiences and brands, bringing together cutting-edge technology, influential content, strategic insights and real-time audience engagement. As the parent company of SiliconANGLE, theCUBE Network, theCUBE Research, CUBE365, theCUBE AI and theCUBE SuperStudios — such as those established in Silicon Valley and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — SiliconANGLE Media operates at the intersection of media, technology, and AI. .
Founded by tech visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a powerful ecosystem of industry-leading digital media brands, with a reach of 15+ million elite tech professionals. The company’s new, proprietary theCUBE AI Video cloud is breaking ground in audience interaction, leveraging theCUBEai.com neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
