DDoS Attack
Distributed Denial of Service — an attack that overwhelms a server with traffic to make it unavailable.
Also: Distributed Denial of Service
Definition
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic from multiple sources — often a botnet of compromised devices. Unlike a simple DoS attack from one source, DDoS attacks are difficult to block because traffic comes from thousands or millions of IP addresses simultaneously. Attack types include volumetric attacks, protocol attacks, and application-layer attacks.
Example
“Hackers used a botnet of 500,000 infected devices to flood an online gaming platform with 1 Tbps of traffic, taking it offline for 12 hours.”
Synonyms
- denial of service attack
- traffic flood attack
- volumetric attack
Antonyms / Opposites
- DDoS protection
- traffic scrubbing
Images
CC-licensed · free to useVideo
Related Terms
- botnet
- denial-of-service
- cdn
- ddos-protection