Cloudflare reports a sharp rise in DDoS activity
Cloudflare said it successfully mitigated 18.2 million network-layer distributed denial-of-service attacks in the third quarter of 2026. The company’s Q3 2026 DDoS Threat Report, published on October 29, covered July through September and put attack frequency 208% above the same quarter in 2025.
Most attacks were brief and relatively small
The reported pattern was driven by frequent, short disruptions: 96% of network-layer attacks ended within 10 minutes, while 98% remained below 1 Gbps. Cloudflare characterized the pattern as consistent with the use of DDoS-for-hire “booter” services.
Network and HTTP measurements remain separate
Cloudflare recorded about 8,226 network-layer attacks per hour, alongside 14.4 trillion malicious HTTP requests. These figures measure different categories and should not be added together as a combined attack count. Mitigated traffic reached 272.6 petabytes at the network layer and 95.1 petabytes at the HTTP layer.
The reviewed reporting does not identify the attackers or establish that the increase reflects a specific threat actor. Cloudflare’s figures measure attacks and traffic observed and mitigated across its network, rather than all DDoS activity worldwide.
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