Cloudflare provides free cybersecurity services to more than 3,400 domains belonging to organizations in 120 countries through Project Galileo. Because of the number of organizations in the program and their geographic representation, Cloudflare has access to unique insights regarding cyberattack trends targeting civil society—a critical pillar of global democracy.
In addition, general attack data derived from the company’s network—which processes more than 20% of the world’s Internet traffic—allows for a comparison between attacks against civil society and other Internet users more broadly.
Cloudflare identified four material attack trends over the past year: DDoS attacks aimed at taking sites offline, attempts to exploit security websites vulnerabilities, phishing attacks, and Internet shutdowns. The data demonstrates how civil society organizations were targeted more frequently, and often more intensely, than other Internet users. These findings reinforce previous Cloudflare research, which found that religious institutions, non-profits, and other civic groups were some of the most targeted by cyberattacks in 2025.
