DDoS attacks are no longer rare events targeting only major internet providers or global enterprises.
Most companies think they understand DDoS Protection, or they assume their provider has them covered. Others think they are too small to matter. Many rely on blackholing and consider the problem solved. Meanwhile, attacks are growing larger than ever.
For example, at Interlink attacks in the 3 Tbps range have already been observed in 2026.
Today, attacks are more frequent and increasingly capable of disrupting organisations of every size, from telecom operators and cloud providers to online retailers, gaming platforms, and smaller regional networks.
And according to Inter.link’s Ciprian Abaseaca, one of the biggest challenges facing the industry is not only the growth of attacks themselves, but the widespread misunderstanding of how DDoS protection works.
The Era of Hyper-Volumetric DDoS Attacks
The scale of modern DDoS attacks has changed dramatically over the last few years.
As global internet capacity grows, so does the power available to attackers. More connected devices, larger botnets, increasing compute power, and greater network bandwidth have all contributed to the rise of hyper-volumetric attacks.
Attacks measured in terabits per second are no longer unusual.
“We now regularly see attacks in the terabit range,” explains Ciprian. “At Inter.link, we’ve experienced attacks in the 3 Tbps range already in 2026.”
What makes these attacks particularly dangerous is that organisations often only see a fraction of the full attack volume reaching their infrastructure.
“When you’re the target, you only see the traffic that actually reaches you,” he explains. “You never truly know how large the full attack may be behind the scenes.”
And the trend is only moving in one direction.
Industry-wide statistics already show massive year-over-year increases in attack volumes during the first half of 2026 alone, continuing a pattern the industry has witnessed for years.
Why DDoS Protection Is Not a One-Provider Problem
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding DDoS protection is the belief that a single provider can completely secure a network.
In reality, DDoS protection requires a layered and coordinated approach.
A company may protect one upstream provider while leaving other parts of its infrastructure exposed. In that scenario, attackers can simply use another route into the network.
“You can protect the front door with fifty locks,” says Abaseaca, “but if the window is open, malicious actors will still get in.”
This is especially important for organisations operating multi-homed networks with several transit providers or complex routing environments.
True protection requires visibility and mitigation across all possible attack paths.
Small Companies Are Targets Too
Another dangerous misconception is the belief that only large organisations are targeted.
According to Ciprian Abaseaca, this assumption is simply incorrect.
“Many smaller companies believe they are too small to matter,” he explains. “But DDoS attacks don’t only affect large enterprises.”
Some attacks are deliberate. Others are opportunistic. And many organisations become collateral damage simply because they share infrastructure or network segments with the intended target.
Even if a company is never directly targeted, nearby attacks can still create major disruptions.
This means every organisation connected to the internet should consider DDoS protection part of basic operational resilience and not an optional extra reserved only for large enterprises.
The Human Element Behind DDoS Attacks
Despite growing discussions around AI and automation, DDoS attacks are still ultimately driven by people.
And attackers often exploit human behaviour just as much as technical vulnerabilities.
Attackers don’t just study networks. They study organizations. Holiday periods, overnight windows, and reduced staffing levels create opportunities for slower detection and response times during incidents.
Attackers understand that:
- CTOs may be on holiday
- Senior engineers may be unavailable
- NOC teams may operate with reduced staffing
- Escalation procedures may take longer
“Attackers look for moments when organisations are less prepared,” says Ciprian.
This is also why many attacks occur during overnight hours or outside standard business operations.
Why Blackholing Is Not Real Protection
One of the biggest mistakes Ciprian still sees is organizations treating black holing as DDoS protection. Unfortunately, blackholing simply discards traffic directed towards a subnet or IP address.— effectively taking those addressesor services offline.
“Yes, the network survives,” explains Abaseaca, “but the customer is still down. In many ways, the attacker has succeeded in their attempt to “Deny their Service””
This highlights an important distinction between protecting infrastructure and maintaining service availability.
Modern DDoS protection strategies increasingly focus on mitigation and traffic scrubbing rather than simply sacrificing targeted services.
DDoS Protection Should Be Treated Like Insurance
One of the strongest comparisons made during the discussion was the idea that DDoS protection functions similarly to an insurance policy.
Most companies hope they never need it.
But when an attack occurs, the operational and financial impact can be enormous.
Industry studies regularly estimate that downtime caused by DDoS attacks can cost thousands of dollars per minute through:
- Lost revenue
- Customer disruption
- SLA penalties
- Operational recovery costs
- Reputational damage
“You never know when an attack might happen,” says Abaseaca. “That’s why protection needs to exist before the problem appears.”
Importantly, modern DDoS protection no longer needs to be prohibitively expensive. Effective mitigation services are increasingly accessible even for smaller networks and growing businesses.
Our previous article compares DDoS protection with insurance and explains how to be proactive against DDoS attacks.
The Future of DDoS Protection
As attacks continue evolving, providers are focusing heavily on:
Larger scrubbing capacity
- Faster mitigation
- Layer 3 to Layer 7 protection
- Automated activation
- Real-time visibility
- Instant response capabilities
Inter.link, for example, offers instant-activation DDoS protection designed to function like a “panic button” when attacks happens.
But even with improving technology, the most important takeaway remains unchanged:
There is no perfect single solution.
DDoS protection requires preparation, layered security, operational awareness, and continuous adaptation.
The biggest risk isn’t the size of modern DDoS attacks. It’s the assumption that they only happen to someone else.
