Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in the EMEA region declined during the first half of 2025, according to NETSCOUT’s DDoS Threat Intelligence Report, which examined global attack trends over the six-month period.
Global DDoS activity fell by 10%, while the EMEA region recorded a 12% decrease compared to the previous half-year. The region faced 3.2 million attacks, with the highest single-day count reaching nearly 25,000 incidents.
Europe remained the most targeted within EMEA, with Germany, France, Poland, and Russia leading the list. Saudi Arabia ranked fifth, highlighting continued risks across both European and Middle Eastern networks.
DDoS Threat Landscape of Africa
South Africa recorded the most DDoS attacks in Africa, followed by Morocco, Kenya, Mauritius, and Egypt.
South Africa Leads in DDoS Attacks
South Africa experienced 213,523 DDoS attacks in the first half of 2025, averaging one attack every 39 minutes. The most severe incident reached a bandwidth of 312 Gbps and a throughput of 27 Mpps, enough to disrupt major online services. Attackers mainly exploited DNS, DNS amplification, TCP ACK, TCP RST, and TCP SYN/ACK amplification—methods designed to overwhelm networks with malicious traffic. The wireless telecommunications sector was most affected, recording 126,551 attacks with an average duration of 17 minutes, underscoring its vulnerability due to high user connectivity.
Morocco Ranks Second in Africa
Morocco followed with 75,624 DDoS attacks, making it the second-most targeted country in Africa. Up to 21 attack vectors were used in a single incident. DNS amplification led with 28,942 attacks, followed by TCP ACK floods (19,451), TCP SYN floods (18,196), TCP SYN/ACK amplification (11,146), and TCP RST floods (6,185). These methods combined reflection/amplification techniques with direct flooding strategies. Wireless telecommunications experienced 16,140 incidents, with the largest attack peaking at 232 Gbps and 50.19 Mpps, lasting an average of 52 minutes.
Kenya, Mauritius and Egypt Among Top Targets
Kenya ranked third, recording 46,786 DDoS attacks. A single incident involved up to 23 attack vectors, showing high attack complexity. Common techniques included DNS amplification (20,596 attacks), TCP ACK floods (19,516), DNS floods (14,082), TCP SYN/ACK amplification (9,750), and TCP SYN floods (9,426). The largest attack reached 78.3 Gbps and 15.49 Mpps, lasting nearly 118 minutes.
Mauritius was fourth, with 30,039 attacks in the first half of 2025. A single incident involved up to 20 vectors. Attackers frequently used ICMP floods (8,562), TCP ACK (4,837), DNS amplification (2,653), TCP SYN (2,055), and TCP RST floods (1,005). These methods combined network-layer reflection/amplification and protocol-level flooding techniques.
Egypt reported 20,628 DDoS attacks, making it one of North Africa’s most targeted countries. Up to 22 vectors were used in a single incident, highlighting increasing sophistication. TCP ACK floods (27,703) dominated, followed by TCP SYN/ACK amplification (7,289), DNS amplification (5,515), TCP RST floods (5,126), and ICMP floods (4,091). Wired telecommunications experienced 28,536 attacks peaking at 332.96 Gbps and 31.36 Mpps, averaging 59 minutes, while wireless telecoms recorded 4,910 incidents, averaging 53 minutes.
How to Protect Your Organization Against DDoS Attacks
Here are five effective ways organizations can safeguard against DDoS attacks:
- Reduce the Attack Surface: Disable unused ports, services, and protocols to limit potential entry points that attackers can exploit to overwhelm systems.
- Deploy Always-On DDoS Protection: Implement cloud-based mitigation that continuously monitors and filters traffic to block large-scale attacks before they reach your infrastructure.
- Establish a DDoS Response Plan: Develop and regularly test an incident response plan that outlines responsibilities, communication channels, and escalation paths during an attack.
- Adopt a Hybrid Defense Strategy: Combine on-premises security appliances for immediate response with cloud scrubbing centers for handling massive, distributed traffic surges.
- Monitor and Analyze Network Traffic: Continuously inspect and analyze traffic patterns to quickly identify anomalies, block malicious flows, and update defense mechanisms
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