Key DDoS Trends for 2025

Cybercriminals now hijack everything, from millions of IoT gadgets to cloud servers, forming super-botnets that can overwhelm even the most robust infrastructures. Some cloud-based botnets boast thousands of times the attack power of earlier IoT swarms, creating an unprecedented scale of threat.

Attack sizes are smashing through previous records. 2024 saw over 200 mega-attacks above 1 Tbps, peaking at 5.6 Tbps – volumes that can cripple standard defenses. Expect even bigger traffic barrages in 2025, ushering in an era of “hyper-volumetric” DDoS attacks that few traditional solutions can withstand.

The boom in connected devices means no industry is off-limits. Attackers are exploiting weak links in new areas (like smart retail gadgets and other once-“low-risk” systems) and aiming at critical infrastructure — energy grids, healthcare, transportation — to cause maximum disruption, often fuelled by global geopolitical tensions.

Not all attacks announce themselves with volume. Attackers are getting stealthier, exploiting protocol flaws like the recent HTTP/2 “Rapid Reset” and targeting poorly secured APIs to blend malicious traffic with normal usage. These cunning tactics can slip past legacy defences undetected, wreaking havoc before you even know what hit you.

Attack campaigns are increasingly blending tactics and even leveraging AI to adapt on the fly. Think massive traffic floods combined with pinpoint application or API attacks, all orchestrated by self-learning botnets that switch strategies in real time. These shape-shifting, multi-vector assaults will overwhelm one-dimensional defenses and demand a radically smarter response from security teams.