In 1996, a New York-based Internet service provider became the first target of a major distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. They were shut down for 36 hours.Since then, DDoS has remained a favored tactic of cybercriminals. But with the advent of AI, DDoS attacks have become both more common and harder to stop. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, DDoS attacks skyrocketed by 358%. Further, the proportion of triumphant DDoS attacks that caused actual downtime rose by 53%.
A DDoS attack is a form of cyberattack in which multiple compromised computer systems attack a target and cause a denial of service. It sends a flood of incoming messages, connection requests, or malformed packets to the targeted system. This forces the application, website, or network to slow or shut down entirely. This denies service to legitimate users or systems—hence the name. These attacks are often orchestrated via bots.
DDoS used to mean the overwhelming of targets with massive amounts of traffic. But now, DDoS attacks have evolved into much more precise attacks, and this progress can be mostly credited to AI.
AI can be used to support data analysis that can identify weak points in a given digital infrastructure, which may have been hidden from previous searches using more conventional detection methods. AI can also launch multi-vector attacks with precise timing and volume control and adjust tactics on the fly based on cyberdefense response.
AI and human behavior
AI-driven bots are becoming increasingly capable of mimicking human behavior, making it more difficult for automated filters to identify malicious traffic. The result is a new generation of attacks that are harder to detect and harder to stop.
A recent w
