What Happened?

Cloudflare tracked massive shifts across global internet traffic, security incidents, and infrastructure breakdowns.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• Internet traffic kept growing, but with more spikes and crashes
• DDoS attacks broke records, not just in size, but in frequency
• Bots dominate the roads, some good, many shady
• Outages showed the internet’s fragility, where one bug can trigger a global blackout
• Governments kept throttling access, causing 50%+ traffic drops during shutdowns

And attackers?

They’re not waiting for a meeting invite.

They’re moving minutes after vulnerabilities are disclosed.

Traffic’s Up, But Uneven

The internet grew again, but not in a smooth way.

• News events and software launches created massive spikes
• Mobile traffic overtook desktop again
• HTTPS is king, with 95%+ of all requests encrypted

Translation:

People are browsing more, clicking faster, and doing it all on their phones.

DDoS Attacks Went Beast Mode

Cloudflare saw record-breaking DDoS attacks in 2025.

• Terabit-scale floods
• Short, frequent bursts (less than one minute) designed to sneak past defenses
• Attacks targeting APIs, logins, and dynamic content

It’s not about smart hacks.

It’s about brute force at internet scale.

Botpocalypse Now

Bots ran the internet this year.

Good Bots

• Search engines
• Uptime monitors

Bad Bots

• Scrapers
• Credential stuffers
• Sneaker hoarders

Even worse?

Some bots now look like real humans.

They use residential IPs and fake browsers to bypass detection.

The Internet Keeps Tripping Over Its Own Cables

Outages in 2025 were wild.

• DNS failures
• BGP leaks
• Software bugs

Pick your poison.

When one service sneezes, half the web catches a cold.

User behavior shifts instantly.

Refresh buttons get abused.

And guess what?

You’re still relying on the same old backbone.

Shutdowns Were a Global Habit

Governments throttled, blocked, and blacked out internet access again.

Trigger Events

• Elections
• Protests
• Exams

Impact

• More than 50% traffic drops in hours

Ripple Effects

• Even neighboring countries felt it

You can’t operate in a global economy if your users can’t reach you.

The Cybernara View

This report confirms what we already knew:

Modern internet = constant stress test.

At Cybernara, we see this as a loud wake-up call:

• Speed is the new defense
• Bots are the new users
• Outages aren’t “rare” anymore

Our job?

Help you build for this reality, not last year’s.

TL;DR

• Traffic’s up, especially on mobile
• DDoS attacks are faster, stronger, and non-stop
• Bots are harder to spot and everywhere
• Outages still break the internet
• Governments still shut it down

Want to Prepare for What Comes Next?

If you’d like help navigating this or improving your security posture, reply to this email or reach out to Cybernara.