Denial-of-service attack

In computing, a denial-of-service (DoS) attack is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users.

Web site denial of service

DoS attacks can interrupt or suspend services of a web server connected to the Internet,

As a result, web sites can become slow or completely unavailable.

Distributed denial-of service (DDos)

A distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS) is where the attack source is more than one, often thousands of, unique IP addresses.

It is analogous to a group of people crowding the entry door or gate to a shop or business, and not letting legitimate parties enter into the shop or business, disrupting normal operations.

Targets and motivations

Criminal perpetrators of DoS attacks often target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways

Motives of revenge, blackmail, or activism can be behind other attacks.

See also

• Computer security
• Computing
• Crime
• Distributed denial-of-service attack
• Internet
• IP address
• Security
• Web server

External links

• Denial-of-service attack @ Wikipedia