The record for the largest cyberattack just doubled. In three weeks.
Cloudflare blocked a DDoS attack peaking at 22.2 terabits per second- twice the size of the 11.5 Tbps assault it stopped in early September (ie just a few weeks earlier).
The attack lasted 40 seconds and was autonomously blocked. No human intervention. No human could have responded fast enough.
Here’s the pattern: June saw a 7.3 Tbps attack. Early September brought 11.5 Tbps (partly sourced from Google Cloud). Now 22.2 Tbps. That’s exponential acceleration in offensive capability happening in real-time.
The attack came from the Aisuru botnet - hundreds of thousands of compromised IoT devices. Smart cameras, routers, doorbells. All conscripted into an invisible army without their owners knowing.
Defence is already automated because human-speed security is obsolete. While we debate AI governance in policy papers, there’s an AI arms race happening at network speed. No treaties, no press conferences. Just machines defending against machines, escalating every few weeks.
Six months from now, this will be the small one.
