Content delivery network provider Cloudflare Inc., which through its services deals with some 20% of global internet traffic, released its annual year in review report today and, along with a long list of stats, there are some disturbing and interesting trends in cybersecurity and overall internet use.

According to the review, internet traffic through 2024 grew 17.4%, with Google LLC maintaining its position as the most popular internet service overall. OpenAI was found to be the most used generative artificial intelligence provider, Binance the top cryptocurrency service, WhatsApp topped messaging, and Facebook remained the top social media site.

Across mobile phone use, two-thirds of mobile traffic came from Android devices, while the remaining third was from iOS. Android accounted for over 90% of mobile device traffic in 29 countries and regions, while iOS only managed to sneak above a 60% share in eight countries and regions.

Not surprisingly, Google was found to have maintained its position as the most popular search engine globally and across all platforms, with Chinese search engine Baidu a distant second. Microsoft’s Corp. Bing ranked second on Windows devices and surprisingly, privacy search engine DuckDuckGo ranked second on macOS. Google Chrome remained by far and away the most popular browser, including on macOS devices, but Safari was ahead of Chrome on iOS devices.

Through 2024, internet outages grew to more than 220 incidents, up from 180 the previous year. Government-directed shutdowns were the main cause of outages, but new patterns emerged involving cable cuts, military actions and severe weather impacts. Notable examples include disruptions around the Baltic Sea and prolonged outages in Haiti and Bangladesh.

On the security threat mitigation side, some 6.5% of global traffic required mitigation in 2024, with more than 50 countries experiencing 10% or more of traffic flagged for threats. The U.S. saw a notable increase to 5%, while South Korea maintained a high rate of 8%.

By industry, gambling and games were found to be the most attacked industry in 2024, slightly ahead of finance, which was the most targeted industry in 2023.

Malicious emails also grew in the year, now accounting for 4.2% of total email traffic, with sharp rises noted in March, April and May. Deceptive links and identity spoofing were the most common attack vectors. Nearly all of the email messages processed by Cloudflare Email Security from the .bar, .rest, and .uno top-level domains were found to be either spam or malicious in nature.

Though the review does cover many of the negatives, there was some good news. Following the release of new NIST standards in August and widespread adoption by platforms like Apple iMessage, Signal and Google Chrome, post-quantum cryptography saw a significant leap through 2024. Cloudflare reported 12.87% of TLS 1.3 traffic using PQC, up from 1.7% in 2023 — not high enough, but heading in the right direction.

One other interesting finding was an increase in internet traffic from Space X Inc.’s Starlink satellite internet service. Global traffic from Starlink grew 3.3 times in 2024, driven by its introduction into new markets such as Malawai, which saw 38-fold Starlink traffic growth.

The 2024 findings highlight the urgent need for businesses and governments to address evolving cyberthreats. As the internet continues to expand and diversify, Cloudflare argues, securing its infrastructure remains a top priority for global stability and innovation.

Image: SiliconANGLE/Ideogram