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DDoS Attacks Double Down: New Report Reveals Alarming Trends
14 Oct
Summary
- Over 9.1 million DDoS attacks recorded globally in the first half of 2026.
- Attacks exceeding 1Tbps or 1Gpps surged by 1,286% year over year.
- Residential proxies and short, rate-based attacks are increasingly common.
The global Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) threat landscape has undergone a significant transformation in the first half of 2026. NETSCOUT's latest report reveals over 9.1 million DDoS attacks worldwide, highlighting escalating risks. High-capacity attacks, defined as those exceeding 1Tbps or 1Gpps, have seen an astonishing 1,286% increase year-over-year, indicating a new normal for attack intensity.
This evolution is compounded by the rise of residential proxies and the increasing prevalence of short, rate-based attacks originating from DDoS-for-hire platforms. These sophisticated methods bypass traditional network controls, demanding finer-grained, selective mitigation. IPv6 has also crossed the terabit threshold for attacks, with mitigation needs rising over 300% year-over-year.
Direct-path attack methods now constitute 64% of observed attacks, and there's a notable rise in outbound attacks that disrupt services without saturating links. The economic model for attacks is shifting, with one-minute-or-less attacks roughly doubling in share, simplifying access to DDoS-for-hire services and shortening the path to disruption.
