DenialofServiceAttacken

Denial-of-Service, often abbreviated as DoS, is a type of cyberattack that aims to disrupt the normal functioning of a server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. The objective is to make the target resource unavailable to its intended users. Attackers achieve this by sending a massive amount of requests to the target system, which consumes its bandwidth or processing power. This leaves legitimate requests unable to be processed, effectively denying service to users.

There are several common methods used in DoS attacks. One is a SYN flood, where an attacker sends a large number of TCP SYN (synchronization) packets to a server, initiating a connection but never completing the handshake. This leaves the server waiting for connections that will never be finalized, exhausting its resources. Another method is a Ping of Death, which involves sending a malformed or oversized packet to a target computer. If the target system attempts to reassemble the fragmented packet, it can lead to a buffer overflow and crash the system.

A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is a more sophisticated and common variant of a DoS attack. In a DDoS attack, the malicious traffic originates from multiple compromised computer systems, often referred to as a botnet. This distributed nature makes it much harder to trace the source of the attack and to block the traffic, as it comes from numerous IP addresses. The sheer volume of traffic generated by a botnet can be overwhelming for even robust defenses. Defending against DoS and DDoS attacks typically involves a combination of network monitoring, traffic filtering, and rate limiting to identify and block malicious traffic before it reaches the target.