Cloudflare Reports 18.2 Million Network-Layer DDoS Attacks in Q3, Up 38%
Threat actors are launching about 8,226 network-layer distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks per hour, Cloudflare revealed Thursday. The web infrastructure and security company said it autonomously mitigated 18.2 million network-layer (L3) DDoS attacks and 14.4 trillion HTTP DDoS requests in the third quarter of 2026. That amounts to 197,400 attacks per day, or one attack every 0.44
In Q3 2026, Cloudflare reported a staggering 18.2 million network-layer DDoS attacks, marking a 38% increase compared to the previous quarter. The company's autonomous systems thwarted a total of 18.2 million L3 attacks and 14.4 trillion HTTP DDoS requests, averaging 197,400 attacks per day or one attack every 0.44 seconds. This rise can be attributed to DDoS-for-hire services that have orchestrated hundreds of thousands of incidents.
Short-burst attacks lasting under 10 minutes and 1 Gbps surged by 208%, per Cloudflare's One threat intelligence team's quarterly report. Notably, hyper-volumetric attacks, those exceeding 1 Tbps, saw a significant 69% decrease, dropping from 805 in Q2 to 251 in Q3, possibly due to law enforcement efforts against certain threat groups.
However, new variants like Dysphoria and Evooo1Bot remain a concern. DNS amplification attacks grew by 215%, comprising 3.43% of all L3 attacks. Industries most targeted include media, IT services, gambling, software, and telecommunications. The U.S., China, Indonesia, the U.K., and Türkiye faced the highest attack rates, with Canada and Israel joining the top 10, driven by attacks on sectors like retail, telecom, and marketing.
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