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Cloudflare, the internet infrastructure provider and global cloud platform, has successfully mitigated a record-breaking Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, preventing any disruption to services.
In a brief announcement shared on X, the company revealed that its defenses have been working “overtime” in recent weeks, autonomously blocking hundreds of hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks. Among these was the largest on record, peaking at 5.1 billion packets per second (Bpps) and 11.5 terabits per second (Tbps).
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Bpps (Billions of Packets per Second): Measures how fast attackers overwhelm network devices.
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Tbps (Terabits per Second): Indicates the total volume of data, or bandwidth consumed.
Initially, Cloudflare attributed the source of the UDP flood to Google Cloud, but later clarified that it originated from a mix of IoT devices and multiple cloud providers. While Google Cloud was one of the sources, it was not the majority.
Breaking New Records
This attack shattered previous records for both speed and size. Before this, the largest known attack measured 7.3 Tbps, which was also thwarted by Cloudflare against an unnamed hosting provider.
The Growing Threat of DDoS
DDoS attacks occur when hackers compromise thousands of internet-connected devices, often through malware. These devices are then used to send massive waves of traffic to a target server, overwhelming it and cutting off access for legitimate users.
As the Internet of Things (IoT) expands and billions of devices connect online daily, DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, and more destructive.
Cloudflare’s ability to automatically mitigate attacks of this magnitude highlights both the growing scale of the threat and the critical importance of advanced cybersecurity infrastructure.
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