Cloudflare Thwarts Record-Breaking 4.2Tbps DDoS Attack Amid Rising Cyber Threats

A new record-breaking distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack has hit a massive 4.2 terabits per second (Tbps), targeting an unnamed U.S. service provider and setting a new high for volumetric cyber assaults. Cloudflare, a global internet infrastructure provider and DDoS protection specialist, managed to thwart the attack, which occurred this Monday, just weeks after it mitigated the previous record of 3.8Tbps in late September.

The brief but intense DDoS attack lasted approximately 60 seconds, during which an immense wave of internet traffic aimed to knock the targeted service offline. Cloudflare identified the source as a botnet—a network of nearly 54,000 hacker-controlled devices often infected through malware—that initiated the attack using a “UDP flood” and “DNS amplification” technique, popular methods for overwhelming a system by flooding it with data packets.

Omer Yoachimik, senior project manager at Cloudflare, attributed the recent surge in DDoS attacks to escalating global tensions, suggesting that increasingly sophisticated botnets are being leveraged to disrupt critical online services. This recent attack is part of what Cloudflare describes as an “unprecedented surge” in hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks, with over six million incidents reported in Q3 of 2024. These figures reflect a staggering 49% rise from the previous quarter and a 55% increase compared to the same period last year.

Of these attacks, Cloudflare’s autonomous DDoS defense systems intercepted and mitigated over 200 hyper-volumetric events, surpassing 3Tbps and 2 billion packets per second (Bpps). These defense measures have been crucial in protecting service providers globally from debilitating disruptions.

China remains the most frequently targeted region, according to Cloudflare’s data, with the U.S. ranking ninth on the list of most-attacked countries. As cyber threats intensify alongside geopolitical tensions, Cloudflare’s adaptive DDoS mitigation technologies play a critical role in protecting internet infrastructure worldwide.