Carpet Bombing in DDoS: A Growing Concern

Every year, our analysts report a sharp rise in the number of “carpet bombing” attacks in the global DDoS landscape. What’s causing this growth? And what exactly does carpet bombing mean in the context of DDoS attacks? Let’s dive in.

How Carpet Bombing Attacks Work

Carpet bombing attacks, also referred to as DDoS carpet bombing, distribute malicious traffic across numerous IP addresses within a target network. Each address experiences a slight traffic increase, making the attack less conspicuous. However, when all these IPs are hit at once, the overall load on the network increases dramatically. At some point, the system becomes overloaded, leading to infrastructure failure.

Hackers favor this method because it’s highly effective. Even partial success can still cause significant damage. Many organizations aren’t prepared for such distributed attacks, and standard DDoS protections that counter simpler attacks often fall short.

Carpet bombing is also highly versatile. It’s used against a wide range of targets, from small businesses to government agencies. The DDoS reasons behind these attacks vary—some hackers use them for political motivations, while others aim for extortion or to gain a competitive advantage.

Why Carpet Bombing DDoS Attacks Are on the Rise

The rise in carpet bombing DDoS attacks is largely driven by the evolution of botnets. These networks of hijacked devices are the primary tool for carrying out these attacks. Over the past year, botnets have become significantly larger and more powerful. By the end of 2024, the average botnet consisted of around 38,000 devices—four times more than in 2023.

Another factor is the accessibility of botnet tools. Many of these tools can be bought on the dark web, and they’re often designed to be user-friendly, requiring little technical knowledge to operate.

How to Protect Against Carpet Bombing 

Carpet bombing and other DDoS attacks can severely disrupt IT infrastructure and critical business operations. They can lead to service outages, application slowdowns, data breaches, financial losses, and damage to your reputation.

Protecting against these attacks requires a multi-layered approach:

• Invest in advanced anti-DDoS solutions. These tools can quickly filter out malicious traffic, whether it’s targeting individual IP addresses or entire network ranges.
• Stay ahead of evolving threats. DDoS protection is a constant arms race. Make sure your solution can handle modern, high-power attacks with fast response times.
• Regularly monitor your network for vulnerabilities. The sooner you identify and fix weak points, the harder it will be for attackers to exploit them.