Project Galileo Mitigates 38.5 Billion Cyber Threats as Attacks on Journalists, Human Rights Groups and Independent Media Continue to Escalate
Cloudflare has released its latest Project Galileo report, Defending the Front Line: Insights from a Year of Protecting Civil Society, highlighting a sharp rise in cyberattacks targeting journalists, human rights organizations, independent media outlets, and other civil society groups worldwide.
According to the report, Cloudflare’s Project Galileo mitigated 38.5 billion cyber threats over the past year, protecting more than 3,400 internet properties across 130 countries. The findings underscore how geopolitical tensions, elections, civic unrest, and increasingly sophisticated cybercriminal activity are exposing vulnerable organizations to growing digital risks.
The study found that Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks accounted for 81.7% of all malicious traffic directed at organizations protected under Project Galileo. Unlike typical DDoS attacks that last only minutes, many attacks targeting civil society organizations extended over several days or even weeks. One notable example involved Iraq-based digital rights organization Tech4Peace, which faced an eight-day attack involving 2.6 billion malicious requests.
Media organizations emerged as the most frequently targeted sector, receiving 40.5% of all attacks despite representing only 22.7% of protected organizations. Cloudflare reported blocking malicious requests probing media websites every seven seconds on average. Journalists operating in exile faced particularly elevated risks, experiencing nearly four times more malicious traffic than journalism organizations overall.
The report also highlighted the growing threat of phishing. Nearly 10% of all emails processed for civil society organizations contained potential phishing content, with many attacks bypassing traditional email authentication controls. Cloudflare noted that advanced phishing detection technologies were required to identify nearly one-third of malicious emails that evaded standard security mechanisms.
“Cybersecurity is no longer optional for civil society organizations; it is essential for protecting access to information, democratic participation, and public trust.”
“Organizations supporting independent journalism, digital rights, humanitarian initiatives, and public-interest causes are increasingly operating in complex threat environments,” said Ercan Aydin, AVP, Middle East, Türkiye and Africa at Cloudflare. “Ensuring these organizations have access to enterprise-grade cybersecurity protections is critical to helping them continue serving communities and safeguarding access to information.”
The report also identified 183 internet disruptions globally, including 85 incidents attributed to government actions, highlighting the growing challenges faced by civil society organizations in maintaining communication and information access during periods of political and social tension.
Project Galileo, launched in 2014, continues to provide free cybersecurity protection to organizations working in human rights, journalism, environmental protection, humanitarian aid, and democracy-building initiatives worldwide.
