Project Galileo now protects 2,600+ public
interest organizations in 111 countries for free, against about 96
million DDoS attacks every day
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud
company, today celebrates the tenth anniversary of Project Galileo,
a free offering to protect at-risk public interest groups from
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and keep them online.
These vulnerable targets can include minority rights organizations,
human rights defenders, independent journalists, and democracy
protection programs. To mark the anniversary, Cloudflare is
offering a look at the program’s momentum, statistics, and growing
recipient base.
As part of Cloudflare’s mission to help build a better Internet,
Project Galileo aims to protect free expression online by offering
cybersecurity services like unmetered DDoS protection at no cost.
Project Galileo was founded in 2014 after Cloudflare witnessed
journalism and nonprofit sites being targeted by very large DDoS
attacks. Such attacks flood sites with malicious requests with the
intention of knocking them offline, with millions or billions of
requests over a very short period of time. For organizations with
small staff and budgets, these attacks often take down the site and
prevent those in need from accessing the important work and
services these organizations aim to provide.
“Part of protecting the free and open Internet means making sure
that civil society and political opposition around the world are
not forced offline simply for speaking out or challenging those in
power. Cloudflare is often the only defense standing between these
vulnerable humanitarian, human rights, and journalism groups, and
the people who want to take them down,” said Matthew Prince,
co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. “To see this problem ten years ago,
and to be in a position to help, has been one of our company's most
important projects, particularly for our employees, who are always
willing to make time to onboard and assist new organizations. This
is part of our mission to help build a better Internet.”
Cybersecurity Threats are an Ongoing Challenge for At-Risk
Groups
Between May 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024, Cloudflare mitigated
31.93 billion cyber threats against organizations protected under
Project Galileo. This is an average of nearly 95.89 million cyber
threats per day over the last 11 months. According to a survey of
Project Galileo participants, only 36% of organizations have a
dedicated individual that manages cybersecurity, and 46% of
organizations have a limited staff of just 1-10 employees, which
means every moment spent combating security threats is time taken
away from these organizations’ true missions. Further analysis of
attacks on Project Galileo participants showed:
- The largest attack on a Project Galileo organization
targeted an independent journalism website: On October 11,
2023, the largest attacks seen against an organization under
Project Galileo targeted Meduza, a prominent independent journalism
website covering stories in Russia and across the former Soviet
Union. The DDoS attack peaked at 7 million requests per second,
with an attack duration of 7 minutes. The daily DDoS requests that
were mitigated on that day reached 1.9 billion requests.
- Journalists and independent media are the most frequently
attacked organizations: Journalists and media organizations
were the most attacked category, accounting for 34% of all attacks
to the Internet properties protected under the project in the last
year, followed by human rights organizations at 17%.
- War-time violence is associated with cyber attacks:
Cloudflare has reported patterns of war-time violence accompanied
by cyberattacks against Ukrainian organizations, and more recently,
organizations connected to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Traffic after October 7, 2023, to Israeli and Palestinian
organizations increased, coinciding with the start of the
Israel-Hamas conflict. For example, a prominent organization based
in the United Kingdom that works to secure Palestinian human rights
saw two major attacks. The first, on October 15, 2023, coincided
with the national demonstration in London in support of
Palestinians and spiked from 0 to 44,500 mitigated requests per
second within two minutes. The second, on February 21, 2024,
coincided with UK lawmakers calling for a cease-fire, and peaked at
10,500 mitigations that lasted 40 minutes with an average of 6,638
requests per second. Similarly, an organization that manages vital
Internet infrastructure in the Middle East, saw two major increases
in mitigated traffic — in October, lasting around 2.5 hours and
peaking around 78,500 requests per second, and in December, lasting
more than 2 hours and averaging 8,600 requests per second
throughout that period, reaching as high as 13,830 requests per
second.
LGBTQ, Women’s Empowerment Organizations, and More Can
Further Their Missions with Cloudflare’s Protection
- Awaq ONGD: “Project Galileo's services are not
just integral but absolutely indispensable to our organization's
operations. They go beyond enhancing website performance, security,
scalability, and reliability—they are the very backbone that
enables us to exist and thrive in the digital world. It not only
helps us save on cybersecurity expenses but also provides us with
the financial flexibility to allocate those resources toward our
core mission of fighting climate change.” – Nicolás Morgado,
Director of Cybersecurity
- LGBT Foundation: “Project Galileo has been
fundamental when our day to day has so much risk of online threats
and attacks – civil rights organizations like ours need support 365
days a year. It is important to note that as a Registered Charity,
we’re not massively resourced, so staying online is how we’re able
to save lives. The team at Cloudflare and Ave Design Studio that
keep us secure and online every single day are the unsung heroes to
organizations like ours.” – Matthew Belfield, head of
communications and marketing
- Tech4Peace: “Without Cloudflare's protection, our
website and app would be vulnerable to attacks, potentially
impeding our ability to provide timely and reliable information to
those who need it most and hindering our efforts to solve urgent
cases via the helpline, especially those relating to journalists,
activists, and women facing gender-based violence.” – Aws Al-Saadi,
founder and president
- UN Women Australia: “Cloudflare and Project
Galileo have been amazing, providing us with reliable, reputable,
and actionable advice we simply would not have had access to
otherwise. Its expertise and strategic advice came at a time we
needed it most. The potential impact of the attacks could have been
far worse without Cloudflare’s support.” – Simone Clarke, Chief
Executive Officer
- Cagle Cartoons: “Our servers, sites, and online
delivery are protected by Cloudflare through Project Galileo, and
we couldn’t be in business without this protection. Our sites and
political cartoonists are a target of an astounding amount of
hacker attacks.” – Daryl Cagle, Chief Executive Officer
Growing List of Partners Helps to Drive the Program’s
Expansion
Cloudflare partners with 54 respected civil society
organizations to identify websites eligible for participation in
Project Galileo. These groups provide expertise in their areas of
influence to ensure applicant organizations are approved in an
unbiased and neutral process.
- Internet Society, a global charitable organization
empowering people to keep the Internet a force for good: “Victims
of domestic violence, democracy activists, and journalists can be
targeted by very powerful and determined attackers, and have to be
especially careful with their digital presence and trail online,
lest they be harmed, imprisoned, or killed. We need a diverse group
of knowledgeable individuals supporting and advocating for which
voices and initiatives deserve a leg up. That's exactly the aim of
programs like Project Galileo.” – Dr. Joseph Hall, distinguished
technologist
- National Democratic Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization working to support and strengthen democratic
institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and
accountability in government: "Cloudflare’s Project Galileo stands
out to us for its commitment to providing not only free but also
easily accessible resources. The project's user-friendly resource
guides, for example, have made it much easier for NDI to introduce
concepts like DDoS protection to our diverse range of democracy
partners working to protect their operations — especially in the
context of elections and other critical political processes." –
Evan Summers, program director for Digital Resilience
- NetHope, a global consortium of nonprofits working to
effectively address the world's most pressing challenges through
collaboration, collective action and the smarter use of technology:
“Our NetHope community and the Global Humanitarian ISAC recognizes
that cybersecurity is a team sport, and it is only by working
together with partners like Cloudflare that we will succeed in
keeping nonprofits’ missions safe in the digital age. Nonprofits
provide last-mile critical infrastructure and lifesaving aid to
millions of people worldwide, yet are actively targeted by
malicious actors including nation states. By joining forces with
partners like Cloudflare, through Project Galileo, we can each
bring our specific expertise to defending these nonprofits for the
good of people and the planet.” – Dianna Langley, chief operating
officer
To learn more, please check out the resources below:
- Blog: Protecting Vulnerable Communities for 10 years with
Project Galileo
- Organizations seeking the protection offered by Project Galileo
can apply at cloudflare.com/galileo/.
- Learn more about the wide range of Project Galileo participants
at https://www.cloudflare.com/project-galileo-case-studies/.
About Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) is the leading connectivity cloud
company on a mission to help build a better Internet. It empowers
organizations to make their employees, applications and networks
faster and more secure everywhere, while reducing complexity and
cost. Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud delivers the most
full-featured, unified platform of cloud-native products and
developer tools, so any organization can gain the control they need
to work, develop, and accelerate their business.
Powered by one of the world’s largest and most interconnected
networks, Cloudflare blocks billions of threats online for its
customers every day. It is trusted by millions of organizations –
from the largest brands to entrepreneurs and small businesses to
nonprofits, humanitarian groups, and governments across the
globe.
Learn more about Cloudflare’s connectivity cloud at
cloudflare.com/connectivity-cloud. Learn more about the latest
Internet trends and insights at https://radar.cloudflare.com.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within
the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, which statements involve substantial risks and
uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking
statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,”
“should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,”
“intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,”
“estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative
of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern
Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However,
not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.
Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press
release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding
Cloudflare’s plans and objectives for Project Galileo, Cloudflare’s
ability to protect against DDoS attacks, and Cloudflare’s products
and technology, Cloudflare’s technological development, future
operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made
by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ
materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking
statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited
to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), including Cloudflare’s Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q filed on May 2, 2024, as well as other filings that
Cloudflare may make from time to time with the SEC.
The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate
only to events as of the date on which the statements are made.
Cloudflare undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking
statements made in this press release to reflect events or
circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect
new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except
as required by law. Cloudflare may not actually achieve the plans,
intentions, or expectations disclosed in Cloudflare’s
forward-looking statements, and you should not place undue reliance
on Cloudflare’s forward-looking statements.
© 2024 Cloudflare, Inc. All rights reserved. Cloudflare, the
Cloudflare logo, and other Cloudflare marks are trademarks and/or
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240606555068/en/
Cloudflare, Inc. Daniella Vallurupalli Vice President, Head of
Global Communications press@cloudflare.com
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