Holocaust education sites faced a surge in cyberattacks in 2022
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we remember the six million Jews and countless others murdered by the Nazis. Yet antisemitism persists. In the UK, members of the Jewish community are five times more likely to be targets of hate crimes than any other faith group per capita, according to analysis from the Campaign Against Antisemitism using Home Office data.
Cloudflare's network data reveals a troubling parallel trend in the digital space: cyberattacks against Holocaust educational websites grew significantly in 2022.
Attack traffic rising year over year
In 2021, attacks on Holocaust education sites behind Cloudflare doubled compared to 2020, with one out of every 100 HTTP requests constituting an attack. In 2022, that share rose another 49%, meaning cyberattacks represented 1.6% of all traffic to these sites — nearly one in every 50 requests.
Expressing attacks as a percentage accounts for natural traffic growth and mitigation measures. Looking at absolute numbers tells an even sharper story: between 2021 and 2022, attack traffic to these sites grew 640%, while total requests (including legitimate traffic) grew 397%.
These figures place Holocaust education websites in a broader trend affecting the non-profit sector. According to Cloudflare's Q4 2022 DDoS Trends report, non-profit organizations were the sixth most targeted industry, with 10% of all traffic to their sites constituting DDoS attack traffic.
Free protection for at-risk organizations
Non-profits, including Holocaust education organizations, often lack resources to defend against such attacks. Through Project Galileo, Cloudflare offers free cybersecurity services to groups working in the arts, human rights, civil society, journalism, and democracy. In 2022, the program protected vulnerable websites from an average of 59 million cyber threats daily, as detailed in Cloudflare's Impact Report.
Organizations representing vulnerable public interest groups can apply for Project Galileo protection, or start with Cloudflare's Free plan while waiting for approval.
Preserving memory through testimony
Cloudflare's commitment extends beyond technical protection. Recently, the company's London office hosted Janine Webber, recipient of the British Empire Medal, in an event organized with the Holocaust Education Trust and Judeoflare, Cloudflare's Jewish employee resource group. Webber shared her story of survival with a full auditorium and an oversubscribed Zoom audience.
Her testimony is available on Cloudflare TV, serving as a reminder of why preserving Holocaust education — and protecting the platforms that provide it — remains essential. As survivors pass on, the responsibility falls to the rest of us to ensure the world never forgets.
