Four Years of Attack Data on Holocaust Memorial Sites
Since 2020, Cloudflare has tracked malicious HTTP requests targeting Jewish and Holocaust remembrance and educational websites under its protection. From 2020 through 2022, these sites averaged 736,339 blocked requests per year. That baseline was shattered following the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, which triggered a documented surge in global antisemitic incidents — more than 10,000 in the U.S. alone between October 7, 2023, and September 24, 2024, a 200% year-over-year increase.
Blocked requests against these sites jumped 872% in 2023 to 35.7 million, with most of that traffic arriving after October 7. In 2024, the volume climbed another 30% to over 47 million blocked HTTP requests — meaning more than 3 of every 100 requests to these sites were malicious and blocked.
When the Attacks Hit
Attack volume spiked hard in the fourth quarter of 2023, exceeding 27 million malicious requests. Through the first three quarters of 2024, the numbers gradually declined. Then, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the October 7 assault, the fourth quarter of 2024 saw attacks surge 33% to 36 million requests.
Month-level data shows an initial peak in October 2023, with elevated attack volumes continuing through November and December of that year. After a significant drop in early 2024, the final month of the year brought another surge: in November 2024, over 36 million requests were blocked, with 34% of all requests to these websites marked malicious.
Case Study: Muzeon
Cloudflare's Project Galileo provides free security protection to vulnerable groups, including organizations preserving Jewish history. One beneficiary is Muzeon, a museum in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, dedicated to Jewish history. Prior to joining the program, Muzeon's website suffered significant cyberattacks that degraded performance and hampered operations.
After implementing Project Galileo's DDoS mitigation, Web Application Firewall (WAF), Managed DNS and other services, the museum saw attacks drastically reduced. The protection freed up staff time previously spent on security issues, allowing Muzeon to expand its interactive exhibits and continue sharing its cultural heritage work globally.
A Continuing Threat
The sustained attack volumes against memorial and educational sites track closely with the broader rise in antisemitism observed since late 2023. As these platforms work to preserve historical record and awareness, the security infrastructure protecting them continues to face periodic surges in malicious traffic, particularly around dates of significance to the conflict. Cloudflare's free plan includes security and performance protections, making baseline defenses available even to organizations without dedicated security budgets.
