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. Unlike a standard Denial of Service (DoS) attack, which comes from a single source, a DDoS attack is launched from multiple, often thousands, of compromised devices or systems, forming a botnet. This distributed nature makes DDoS attacks much more difficult to mitigate and can cause significant downtime or service outages for the target organization.
DDoS attacks typically aim to exhaust the resources of a server, network, or website, causing it to become slow, unresponsive, or completely unavailable to legitimate users. Attackers may use different methods, such as sending massive volumes of traffic (volumetric attacks), exploiting weaknesses in network protocols (protocol attacks), or targeting specific vulnerabilities in an application (application layer attacks). The impact of a DDoS attack can range from temporary inconvenience to severe financial and reputational damage, making it a major security concern for organizations that rely on online services and infrastructure.