Case Study: Human Rights Watch achieves automated DDoS protection and uninterrupted website availability with CDNetworks

Human Rights Watch Ensures DDoS Protection with CDNetworks

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit founded in 1978 with roughly 400 staff, depends on its website to publish time-sensitive reporting worldwide. The site was repeatedly targeted by large-scale DoS/DDoS attacks that required manual intervention by a two-person web team, disrupting 70+ content creators’ work and preventing online donations while attacks consumed server resources.

During a move to Pantheon hosting, HRW routed traffic through CDNetworks’ global CDN and automated DDoS mitigation, using absorption PoPs, SSL encryption and 24/7 security monitoring. The deployment delivers real-time attack absorption with no downtime, keeps the site fast across CDNetworks’ ~200 PoPs, preserves user privacy for secure donations, and lets content teams continue publishing uninterrupted.

Human Rights Watch

Mihai Cuibus

Senior Digital Engineering of Human Rights Watch