Key Takeaway
Novice attackers can now execute significant DDoS campaigns, while advanced players utilize botnets of compromised IoT devices, servers, and routers. This shift has made DDoS a cost-effective tool for hacktivists and geopolitical actors, as seen in the 2025 India-Pakistan and Iran-Israel conflicts, where thousands of attacks targeted critical sectors. AI is further enhancing these attacks, enabling automation and real-time adaptation. NETSCOUT emphasizes that traditional defenses are inadequate against evolving threats, urging organizations to invest in advanced threat intelligence and automated response systems to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated DDoS campaigns. Defending against these threats is a critical security challenge.
Even novice attackers can now launch devastating campaigns, while more sophisticated players utilize botnets made up of tens of thousands of compromised IoT devices, servers, and routers.
This democratization has turned DDoS into a cost-effective weapon for hacktivists and geopolitical actors.
For instance, during the 2025 India-Pakistan and Iran-Israel conflicts, coordinated DDoS attacks severely disrupted government and financial sectors, highlighting the strategic role of DDoS in modern cyberwarfare.
In June alone, over 15,000 attacks targeted Iran, with nearly 300 aimed at Israel.
AI: Supercharging attackers
While DDoS-as-a-service lowers the barrier to entry, AI is enhancing the impact.
Attackers are increasingly employing LLMs like WormGPT and FraudGPT to create scripts, automate reconnaissance, and develop innovative offensive strategies.
AI-driven automation enables the scaling of attacks, evasion of detection, and real-time adaptation to evolving network defenses.
NETSCOUT’s message
The takeaway from NETSCOUT’s findings is clear: DDoS is here to stay, and traditional defenses are no longer adequate. Attackers are innovating faster than defenders can adapt.
Only intelligence-driven, adaptive protection can effectively counter today’s industrial-scale, AI-powered DDoS campaigns.
For organizations and service providers, this necessitates investment in advanced threat intelligence, deep-packet inspection, and automated response capabilities that can keep pace with attacker speed and sophistication.
With global traffic exceeding 800Tbps and the number of threat actors increasing, defending the digital frontier is becoming the defining security challenge of our time.
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