Denial-of-Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attacks
What Is a Denial-of-Service Attack?
A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack floods a system or network with excessive traffic or requests, overwhelming its capacity and making it unavailable to legitimate users.
What Makes an Attack 'Distributed'?
A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack uses many compromised systems, often forming a botnet, to launch a coordinated flood of traffic from multiple sources simultaneously, making it far harder to block than a single-source DoS attack.
DoS vs DDoS
| Aspect | DoS | DDoS |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Single system | Multiple distributed systems (botnet) |
| Scale | Limited by one attacker's resources | Can be massive, using thousands of devices |
| Mitigation Difficulty | Relatively easier to block | Much harder due to distributed sources |
Common Mitigation Strategies
Defending against these attacks typically involves traffic filtering, rate limiting, and specialized DDoS protection services that can absorb and filter malicious traffic before it reaches the target system.
DoS and DDoS attacks disrupt availability directly, while Man-in-the-Middle attacks take a quieter approach - intercepting communication instead.
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