Source URL: https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/13/cloudflare_2024_review/
Source: The Register
Title: 2024 according to Cloudflare: Global traffic up, Google still king, US churning out bots
Feedly Summary: Same old same old really
Cloudflare says that global internet traffic grew by 17.2 percent this year, with Google still the most visited internet service, while the US was the source of over a third of global bot traffic (again).…
AI Summary and Description: Yes
**Summary:** Cloudflare’s annual report reveals a 17.2% growth in global internet traffic, with significant contributions from bot traffic primarily originating from the US. The report also highlights trends in AI bots, the rising importance of post-quantum encryption, and notable statistics regarding mobile traffic and web security.
**Detailed Description:**
Cloudflare’s comprehensive annual analysis sheds light on various internet traffic patterns, bot activities, and emerging security practices, making it highly relevant for professionals involved in AI, cloud, and infrastructure security. Below are the key points:
– **Global Traffic Growth:**
– The company reports a year-over-year increase of 17.2% in global internet traffic.
– Despite consistent patterns observed over the past years, the report indicates a noteworthy spike in traffic beginning in mid-August.
– **Bot Traffic Insights:**
– The US led in global bot traffic, generating 34.6% of it, with notable contributions from major companies like Amazon Web Services and Google.
– Cloudflare maintains a list of verified bots that are not necessarily malicious, such as those for indexing and performance testing.
– Specific AI bots, like those used by TikTok’s ByteDance and Anthropic, have shown varying levels of activity, with implications for content training and web interactions.
– **IPv6 Traffic Trends:**
– A decline in global IPv6 traffic percentage was observed, dropping from 33.75% to 28.5%.
– **Connection Behavior:**
– Approximately 20.7% of TCP connections were terminated prematurely, which could indicate various security-related issues, including potential DoS attacks and filtering actions.
– High rates of Post-SYN terminations point to possible connection tampering or filtering activities.
– **Mobile Traffic Distribution:**
– Mobile devices represented about 41.3% of total traffic, with notable differences in platform usage across regions.
– **Browser and Search Engine Dominance:**
– Google Chrome remains the most used browser, capturing 65.8% of requests, while Google leads search traffic with over 88%.
– **Emerging Security Practices:**
– There is a notable 13% of traffic utilizing Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 with post-quantum encryption, signaling awareness of quantum computing threats.
– **Traffic Mitigation Needs:**
– 6.5% of the traffic required mitigation due to security threats, indicating a slight increase in security incidents necessitating protective measures.
– Certain regions, such as Albania and Libya, showed critical levels of mitigated traffic.
– **Performance Metrics:**
– Spain was highlighted as the reigning leader in internet download and upload speeds.
This data reflects crucial patterns for security professionals to understand, particularly concerning bot traffic management, mobile safety considerations, and proactive measures against evolving cyber threats and technologies such as quantum computing. The findings underscore the importance of using advanced security protocols and practices to protect against escalating online threats.