DoS

Denial of Service attack (DoS)

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is a type of cyber attack in which an attacker attempts to make a website, server, or network unavailable to users by overwhelming it with traffic or by sending it malicious data packets. The goal of a DoS attack is to disrupt the normal functioning of a system, making it difficult or impossible for users to access the targeted resource.

There are several types of DoS attacks, including:

Flood attacks: In this type of attack, the attacker sends a massive amount of traffic to the target system, overwhelming its resources and making it inaccessible.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks: These attacks involve multiple computers, known as a botnet, to send a coordinated flood of traffic to the target system. DDoS attacks are more potent than regular DoS attacks because they use multiple sources to generate the traffic.
Application-level attacks: These attacks target specific applications or services running on a server by exploiting vulnerabilities in the software.

DoS attacks can cause significant disruption to businesses and organizations, leading to financial losses and damage to reputation. To protect against DoS attacks, organizations can use various methods such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and traffic filtering mechanisms to detect and block malicious traffic. It is also essential to have a robust incident response plan in place to mitigate the damage caused by DoS attacks.