DDoS

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a type of cyberattack aimed at making an online service unavailable by exhausting its resources. This is typically achieved by routing large volumes of traffic from many compromised devices, forming a botnet that overwhelms the target. DDoS attacks can affect websites, networks, APIs, and other internet-facing services, and they may be launched for extortion, vandalism, political motives, or to mask other intrusions.

Attacks are commonly categorized as volumetric, protocol, or application-layer. Volumetric attacks saturate bandwidth with excessive traffic; protocol attacks exploit weaknesses in network protocols or devices; application-layer attacks target specific features of an application, often appearing as normal user activity but at high intensity. Attack tools and techniques have evolved to complicate detection and mitigation.

Consequences include service outages, degraded performance, lost revenue, and damage to reputation. Organizations may also face indirect costs such as increased support demands, contractual penalties, and decreased user trust. DDoS incidents can disrupt critical infrastructure and harm users who rely on online services during emergencies or peak periods.

Mitigation involves a combination of defensive measures: traffic monitoring and anomaly detection, rate limiting, and filtering; redundancy and load balancing; content delivery networks and scrubbing services; and coordinated incident response. Proactive preparation, including response plans and contact with service providers, reduces dwell time and impact.

Legally, conducting a DDoS attack is illegal in many jurisdictions. Defensive measures and attribution are ongoing challenges, and researchers emphasize ethics and compliance when studying or testing network resilience.