Protecting the EU's largest democratic exercise
From June 6–9, 2024, hundreds of millions of European Union citizens will elect 720 members of the European Parliament (MEPs), in one of the world's most significant democratic exercises. Each of the 27 member states runs its own election with distinct institutions, methods, and processes, and each faces threats ranging from cyber attacks to disinformation aimed at swaying voters. Securing this patchwork of systems requires cooperation across governments, EU bodies, and the private sector. Cloudflare has supported election entities globally with protective tools and expertise, and through the Athenian Project provides its highest level of protection free to state and local governments in the United States and, via international nonprofit partners, to governments worldwide — including election management bodies.
An evolving threat landscape
EU authorities, led by the NIS Cooperation Group with support from the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the European Commission, and the European External Action Service, have already taken coordinated measures. The NIS Cooperation Group's updated Compendium notes that "since the last EU elections in 2019, the elections threat landscape has evolved significantly." Among the newly highlighted risks are Artificial Intelligence (AI), including deep fakes, the increased sophistication of threat actors, and the emergence of "hacktivists-for-hire." Geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are also seen as amplifying cyber threats and foreign influence campaigns within Europe.
The European External Action Service analyzed Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) campaigns during recent national elections in Spain and Poland, and developed response plans for governments. EU High Representative Josep Borrell has called protecting public debate from malign foreign actors "a security challenge, which we need to tackle seriously." National governments are equally concerned. Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior warns that "elections are often a catalyst for increased levels of illegitimate activity by foreign governments, because stoking fear and spreading hate can contribute to the polarization of society, influencing voting habits." Such hybrid threats combine disinformation, cyberattacks, and espionage to exert influence on other states.
Readiness at the EU and national level
To test crisis plans and responses, ENISA has organized a cybersecurity exercise for national and EU-level agencies, and provided authorities with a checklist of specific risks and threats to the electoral process. The European Commission, meanwhile, has issued strict guidelines under the Digital Services Act for "Very Large Online Platforms" (VLOPs) and "Very Large Search Engines" (VLOSEs), requiring dedicated staff to monitor disinformation threats in the 23 official EU languages across all 27 member states, in close collaboration with cybersecurity authorities. Upcoming EU legislation on transparency of political advertising will also mandate clear labeling of political ads on large social media platforms.
In its 2023 EU Threat Landscape report, ENISA warned of risks from AI-enabled information manipulation, including disruptive AI chatbots. The Commission has responded by sending inquiries to major AI developers and promoting industry pledges under the EU AI Pact.
Attack trends observed around elections
Evidence suggests the EU will follow patterns seen elsewhere. Between November 2022 and August 2023, Cloudflare mitigated 213.78 million threats to US government election websites — an average of 703,223 per day. European institutions have already faced similar pressure. The European Parliament website suffered a large cyber attack in November 2023, and in March 2024 French government websites were hit with attacks of "unprecedented intensity."
The UK government has reported "sustained" cyberattacks against civil society, journalists, and public sector groups, along with phishing attempts on politicians. In 2024, the German Interior Ministry described a "serious cyberattack" on the IT infrastructure of the political party CDU.
Overall attack volume continues to grow. Cloudflare's DDoS threat report for Q1 2024 shows 4.5 million DDoS attacks automatically mitigated in that quarter alone, a 50% year-over-year increase. EU governments noted in their Compendium that DDoS attacks "can still be very effective in undermining the public's trust in the electoral process, especially if affecting its most critical and visible phases – that is the transmission, aggregation and display of voting results."
Website attacks are only part of the picture. Ahead of the 2022 US midterms, Cloudflare prevented around 150,000 phishing emails targeting campaign officials over three months. ENISA's threat landscape report warns that AI applied to social engineering makes phishing less costly, more scalable, and more convincing. These trends underscore the need to secure voter registration systems, protect the integrity of election information, and plan effective incident response as threats grow more sophisticated.
Partnerships are central to addressing these challenges. In 2020, Cloudflare partnered with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems to provide Enterprise-level protection to six election management bodies, including the Central Election Commission of Kosovo and local election bodies in Canada.
What Election Day Looks Like on the Network
Cloudflare’s global network spans more than 120 countries and protects roughly 20% of all websites, providing a broad vantage point on Internet traffic trends. Many of these trends—including traffic volume, connection quality, and outages—are visible in Cloudflare Radar.
Analysis of traffic during past election cycles reveals a familiar pattern: heightened interest in election and news websites in the lead-up to voting, followed by a pronounced spike on election day itself. This was visible in data from 2023 covering US state and local government sites protected via the Athenian Project, voting-rights nonprofits under Project Galileo, and political campaigns under Cloudflare for Campaigns.
The same effect was observed during the first round of the 2022 French Presidential elections and the Brazilian Presidential elections that year, with clear surges to election information domains and news media platforms.
Why Collaboration Is Non-Negotiable
Securing election entities and the organizations that support democratic participation is a substantial undertaking. It requires coordination between public and private actors with distinct areas of expertise. The preparations and collaborative frameworks developed by EU governments and agencies are a necessary component of ensuring free, fair, and secure elections. Effective protection relies on governments and industry working together to respond to threats against the democratic process. Cloudflare is currently providing protection to a number of governmental and political campaign websites across the EU.
Groups working to promote democracy worldwide should have access to the security tools they need. Organizations working in the election space can request assistance here, and nonprofits seeking protection under Project Galileo can apply at cloudflare.com/galileo.
For more details on the European Union elections, visit elections.europa.eu.
