Project Galileo now protects 2,600+ public interest organizations in 111 countries for free, against about 96 million DDoS attacks every day
Cloudflare 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.
“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.”
Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare
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.”
