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Project Galileo turns 12! Cloudflare's first report on cyberattacks against civil society is here

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Hi, it's Shiichan! Today I've got a story that warmed my heart a little. Cloudflare's Project Galileo just turned 12 years old!

Cloudflare Blog blog.cloudflare.com

What was announced?

Cloudflare's Blog celebrated the 12th anniversary of Project Galileo. Project Galileo is a program that protects the websites of civil society — journalists, human rights defenders, and nonprofits — for free. It now protects over 3,400 sites across 120 countries.

Alongside the anniversary, Cloudflare published its first comprehensive report analyzing cyberattacks against civil society. Since this comes from the Blog, it's an announcement sharing what they've been working on and what they found.

Why it matters

Journalists and human rights groups often can't spend as much on security as big companies. But because they report and expose things, they're also frequent targets.

That's why showing, with real data, what kinds of attacks these groups face is so important.

What changes

Cloudflare says it will publish this report every year, so we'll be able to track trends in cyberattacks against civil society over time.

Three new partners also joined:

  • International Center for Journalists — supports journalists across 180+ countries
  • Media Cluster Norway — an innovation hub for next-generation media technology
  • NGO-ISAC — a cybersecurity network protecting 1,000+ nonprofits

That brings the total to 59 civil society partners who review and approve applications. Recently the program has been expanding beyond North America and Europe into the Asia-Pacific region, with EngageMedia and OpenCulture Foundation joining too.

Dive Deep

Here's some data from the report that's honestly a bit painful. Civil society groups were attacked more often and more intensely than other internet users.

  • DDoS was the most common, often dragging on for days or weeks
  • Attacks exploiting website vulnerabilities targeted civil society at more than 7 times the rate of other Cloudflare customers
  • Media organizations were especially hit by vulnerability exploitation
  • Exiled journalists saw malicious traffic nearly 4 times higher than journalism organizations overall
  • About 10% of emails processed for civil society contained potential phishing

These attacks often lined up with major moments — like the publication of investigative journalism or public advocacy campaigns. You can really see the targeting.

The report also includes 16 organization case studies from Ukraine, Serbia, the Czech Republic, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, and Cuba.

Cloudflare closes with a three-part call to action:

  • Democratize access to affordable security for more people
  • Increase transparency about cyberattacks and internet shutdowns
  • Build AI and post-quantum protections into security tools by default

Wrap-up

  • Project Galileo turns 12! It now protects 3,400+ civil society sites across 120 countries for free
  • Its first in-depth report on attacks against civil society is out: DDoS leads, and vulnerability attacks hit them more than 7x compared to other customers
  • 3 new partners joined, bringing the review network to 59
  • The report will be published every year going forward

If you want to support journalists and nonprofits, or you care about internet freedom and security, this is an effort worth knowing about!

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