Cloudflare’s Project Galileo Turns 10: Marks One Decade of Protecting At-Risk Organizations Online
Project Galileo now protects 2,600+ public interest organizations in 111 countries for free, against about 96 million DDoS attacks every day
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
“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.
Cybersecurity Threats are an Ongoing Challenge for At-Risk Groups
Between
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The largest attack on a Project Galileo organization targeted an independent journalism website: On
October 11, 2023 , the largest attacks seen against an organization under Project Galileo targeted Meduza, a prominent independent journalism website covering stories inRussia and across the formerSoviet Union . The DDoS attack peaked at 7 million requests per second, with an attack duration of 7 minutes. The daily DDoS requests that were mitigated on that day reached 1.9 billion requests. - Journalists and independent media are the most frequently attacked organizations: Journalists and media organizations were the most attacked category, accounting for 34% of all attacks to the Internet properties protected under the project in the last year, followed by human rights organizations at 17%.
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War-time violence is associated with cyber attacks:
Cloudflare has reported patterns of war-time violence accompanied by cyberattacks against Ukrainian organizations, and more recently, organizations connected toIsrael and the Palestinian territories. Traffic afterOctober 7, 2023 , to Israeli and Palestinian organizations increased, coinciding with the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict. For example, a prominent organization based in theUnited Kingdom that works to secure Palestinian human rights saw two major attacks. The first, onOctober 15, 2023 , coincided with the national demonstration inLondon in support of Palestinians and spiked from 0 to 44,500 mitigated requests per second within two minutes. The second, onFebruary 21, 2024 , coincided withUK lawmakers calling for a cease-fire, and peaked at 10,500 mitigations that lasted 40 minutes with an average of 6,638 requests per second. Similarly, an organization that manages vital Internet infrastructure in theMiddle East , saw two major increases in mitigated traffic — in October, lasting around 2.5 hours and peaking around 78,500 requests per second, and in December, lasting more than 2 hours and averaging 8,600 requests per second throughout that period, reaching as high as 13,830 requests per second.
LGBTQ, Women’s Empowerment Organizations, and More Can Further Their Missions with Cloudflare’s Protection
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Awaq ONGD
: “Project Galileo's services are not just integral but absolutely indispensable to our organization's operations. They go beyond enhancing website performance, security, scalability, and reliability—they are the very backbone that enables us to exist and thrive in the digital world. It not only helps us save on cybersecurity expenses but also provides us with the financial flexibility to allocate those resources toward our core mission of fighting climate change.” –
Nicolás Morgado , Director of Cybersecurity -
LGBT Foundation : “Project Galileo has been fundamental when our day to day has so much risk of online threats and attacks – civil rights organizations like ours need support 365 days a year. It is important to note that as aRegistered Charity , we’re not massively resourced, so staying online is how we’re able to save lives. The team atCloudflare andAve Design Studio that keep us secure and online every single day are the unsung heroes to organizations like ours.”–Matthew Belfield , head of communications and marketing -
Tech4Peace
: “Without Cloudflare's protection, our website and app would be vulnerable to attacks, potentially impeding our ability to provide timely and reliable information to those who need it most and hindering our efforts to solve urgent cases via the helpline, especially those relating to journalists, activists, and women facing gender-based violence.” –
Aws Al-Saadi , founder and president -
UN Women Australia
: “Cloudflare and Project Galileo have been amazing, providing us with reliable, reputable, and actionable advice we simply would not have had access to otherwise. Its expertise and strategic advice came at a time we needed it most. The potential impact of the attacks could have been far worse without Cloudflare’s support.” –
Simone Clarke , Chief Executive Officer -
Cagle Cartoons
: “Our servers, sites, and online delivery are protected by
Cloudflare through Project Galileo, and we couldn’t be in business without this protection. Our sites and political cartoonists are a target of an astounding amount of hacker attacks.” –Daryl Cagle , Chief Executive Officer
Growing List of Partners Helps to Drive the Program’s Expansion
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Internet Society , a global charitable organization empowering people to keep the Internet a force for good:“Victims of domestic violence, democracy activists, and journalists can be targeted by very powerful and determined attackers, and have to be especially careful with their digital presence and trail online, lest they be harmed, imprisoned, or killed. We need a diverse group of knowledgeable individuals supporting and advocating for which voices and initiatives deserve a leg up. That's exactly the aim of programs like Project Galileo.” – Dr.Joseph Hall , distinguished technologist -
National Democratic Institute , a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability in government:"Cloudflare’s Project Galileo stands out to us for its commitment to providing not only free but also easily accessible resources. The project's user-friendly resource guides, for example, have made it much easier for NDI to introduce concepts like DDoS protection to our diverse range of democracy partners working to protect their operations — especially in the context of elections and other critical political processes." –Evan Summers , program director for Digital Resilience -
NetHope , a global consortium of nonprofits working to effectively address the world's most pressing challenges through collaboration, collective action and the smarter use of technology: “Our NetHope community and the Global Humanitarian ISAC recognizes that cybersecurity is a team sport, and it is only by working together with partners likeCloudflare that we will succeed in keeping nonprofits’ missions safe in the digital age. Nonprofits provide last-mile critical infrastructure and lifesaving aid to millions of people worldwide, yet are actively targeted by malicious actors including nation states. By joining forces with partners likeCloudflare , through Project Galileo, we can each bring our specific expertise to defending these nonprofits for the good of people and the planet.” –Dianna Langley , chief operating officer
To learn more, please check out the resources below:
- Blog: Protecting Vulnerable Communities for 10 years with Project Galileo
- Organizations seeking the protection offered by Project Galileo can apply at cloudflare.com/galileo/.
- Learn more about the wide range of Project Galileo participants at https://www.cloudflare.com/project-galileo-case-studies/.
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Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which statements involve substantial risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expect,” “explore,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “could,” “intend,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” or “continue,” or the negative of these words, or other similar terms or expressions that concern Cloudflare’s expectations, strategy, plans, or intentions. However, not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements expressed or implied in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Cloudflare’s plans and objectives for Project Galileo, Cloudflare’s ability to protect against DDoS attacks, and Cloudflare’s products and technology, Cloudflare’s technological development, future operations, growth, initiatives, or strategies, and comments made by Cloudflare’s CEO and others. Actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to, risks detailed in Cloudflare’s filings with the
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