Cloudflare thwarts 17.2M rps DDoS attack – the largest ever reported

The numbers here are impressive. But I find myself wondering about those smaller, 15-second attacks they later mentioned in the article; were those actual _attacks_, or is it more likely, given their smaller scale, short duration and (relatively obscure?) targets, is it more likely those were TESTS in preparation for something bigger?<p>I suspect the latter but I admit I’m not an expert in this area, so more educated views are wholeheartedly welcome!

One important note is that when comparing against their average request rate is that due to the day and night cycle they need about twice the average capacity to serve requests near the user. That being said this is a very impressive attack and sill requires good infrastructure to absorb it.

Attacks like these are a huge threat to internet freedom. There are very few companies that can handle attacks like this, creating another source of centralization.