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DDoS-Guard Reports Record 540,000 L7 Attacks in June 2026 Amid Botnet Fragmentation

DDoS-Guard recorded a sharp 70% increase in L7 attacks during Q2 2026, with June alone seeing 540,000 incidents. Global volumetric attacks doubled compared to all of 2025, including peaks of 1.64 Tbps and 1.58 Tbps. Law enforcement dismantled four major IoT botnets—Aisuru, KimWolf, JackSkid and Mossad—in March, yet long-duration L7 campaigns surged 380%. Attackers shifted focus to application-layer exhaustion using browser automation and AI agents while targeting HR platforms and news sites. Europol’s Operation PowerOFF led to 75,000 warnings and 53 domain takedowns across 21 countries. Experts attribute the June spike to attacks aimed at protection providers themselves rather than single domains.

HabrTranslated from Russian

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DDoS-Guard has published its Q2 2026 threat report, documenting an absolute record in the number of DDoS attacks and several notable shifts in attacker tactics.

Globally, the volume of terabit-class attacks doubled compared with the entire previous year. The two largest incidents reached 1.64 Tbps and 1.58 Tbps, generating 553 Mpps and 638 Mpps respectively. The largest overseas botnet observed contained approximately 2.09 million devices.

In March, authorities in the United States, Canada and Germany dismantled the infrastructure of four major IoT botnets: Aisuru, KimWolf, JackSkid and Mossad. Despite these takedowns, DDoS-Guard observed prolonged, highly distributed attacks throughout the quarter, indicating that attackers are compensating for smaller botnets by improving node efficiency and leveraging cloud resources.

Multiple vendors reported a rise in multi-vector campaigns that combine volumetric, protocol-exhaustion and application-layer techniques. At the same time, low-and-slow attacks designed to evade traditional filtering remain prevalent.

In April, Europol coordinated Operation PowerOFF across 21 countries, resulting in more than 75,000 warnings sent to users of DDoS-for-hire services, four arrests, infrastructure seizures and the closure of 53 domains.

On DDoS-Guard’s own network, L7 attacks increased 70% quarter-over-quarter, with the daily average nearly doubling. Median requests per second rose 270% to 75. The number of attacks lasting more than 24 hours grew by 380%. June set a new single-month record with 540,000 L7 attacks—236% more than April and 300% more than June 2025.

Attackers showed particular interest in job-search and HR platforms (+40%) as well as news outlets (+30%). Experts link the surge to the rapid expansion of public web services and APIs in Russia combined with the increasing use of browser automation and AI agents that make HTTP attacks harder to distinguish from legitimate traffic.

AisuruKimWolfJackSkidMossadDDoS-GuardEuropolOperation PowerOFF
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