Global internet traffic surged by 19 percent in 2025, a year marked by intensified automated bot activity, escalating cyberattacks, and a significant milestone in post-quantum encryption, according to a report released by Cloudflare. The company’s sixth annual Year in Review highlighted notable shifts in internet usage, security, and disruption, largely driven by rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and a sharp increase in large-scale attacks.
Cloudflare reported that it blocked over 25 record-setting distributed denial-of-service attacks throughout the year, indicating a pronounced escalation in cyber warfare. The report revealed that post-quantum encryption now safeguards approximately 52 percent of all internet traffic observed on Cloudflare’s network, marking a substantial improvement from previous years. This technology aims to secure online communications against future threats emerging from quantum computing advancements.
In a notable shift, civil society and nonprofit organizations became the most targeted sectors for cyberattacks in 2025, surpassing financial and commercial entities for the first time. Cloudflare noted that attackers are increasingly drawn to these groups due to the sensitive personal and financial information they manage.
Automated traffic continued to dominate overall internet activity, with Google’s web crawler generating more automated requests than any other AI-related bot. This phenomenon reflects a growing competition among AI crawlers, which Cloudflare termed an intensifying “bot war,” where automated traffic volumes have begun to eclipse those of human users.
In terms of online services, Google and Meta maintained their positions as the two most utilized internet platforms globally, while ChatGPT secured its status as the foremost generative AI service. The report also addressed the role of governments in internet disruptions, revealing that nearly half of significant global outages in 2025 were linked to governmental actions such as shutdowns, throttling, and access restrictions during politically sensitive events. In contrast, outages attributed to undersea cable cuts saw a nearly 50 percent decrease, while incidents related to power failures doubled.
Regional connectivity quality varied significantly, with European countries leading global rankings for internet speed and reliability. Average download speeds in these regions exceeded 200 megabits per second, and Spain was highlighted as the top country worldwide for overall internet quality, according to Cloudflare’s metrics.
The findings presented in the report are based on aggregated and anonymized data sourced from Cloudflare Radar, a public analytics platform powered by the company’s extensive global network, which spans more than 330 cities across over 120 countries, as well as data from its popular 1.1.1.1 public DNS resolver. This comprehensive data set underscores the increasing complexity of internet usage and cybersecurity challenges faced today.
As the landscape of online activity continues to evolve, the implications of these findings highlight the pressing need for robust security measures and advanced technologies, particularly in light of the ongoing threats posed by quantum computing and sophisticated automated attacks. The ongoing developments in AI and the resulting shifts in user behavior promise to reshape the future of the internet, making it essential for stakeholders across industries to adapt to this dynamic environment.
See also
Cybersecurity Investment Reaches $18B in 2025, Driven by AI-Focused Startups
CISO Survey Reveals 92% of Companies Lack AI Oversight, 75% Facing Shadow AI Risks
AI-Driven Cyber Attacks Surge: 63% of IT Pros Report AI-Enabled Threats in 2024
CrowdStrike and SentinelOne Poised for Success as Cybersecurity Market Expected to Double by 2030
Kaspersky Launches SIEM Update with AI-Based Threat Detection and Customization Features
