Netscout

Netscout 1H 2026 Report: High-Power DDoS Attacks Surge 1,286 Percent as Carpet-Bombing and Residential Proxies Rise

Netscout recorded more than 9.1 million DDoS attacks worldwide in the first half of 2026 across 209 countries and territories. High-performance attacks exceeding 1 Tbps or 1 Gpps increased by 1,286 percent compared with the same period in 2025. Direct-Path attacks accounted for 64 percent of observed incidents, while Carpet-Bombing attacks rose from 3.97 percent to 4.54 percent. The share of attacks lasting one minute or less doubled since the second half of 2023, reaching 3.1 percent. Residential-proxy networks increasingly mask malicious traffic as legitimate user requests, rendering single-IP analysis insufficient. Netscout also documented the first IPv6 attack above 1 Tbps and a more than 300 percent year-over-year increase in active IPv6 mitigation. Organizations are advised to protect networks, applications, and IPv6 infrastructure comprehensively, supplementing on-premises capacity with cloud-based defenses when needed.