DoS and DDoS Attacks Explained

DoS (Denial of Service) Attack: Definition: A DoS attack is a cyberattack where the attacker seeks to make a network service unavailable by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic or by exploiting vulnerabilities in the system. How it works: The attacker sends excessive requests to a server or net...

DoS (Denial of Service) Attack: Definition: A DoS attack is a cyberattack where the attacker seeks to make a network service unavailable by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic or by exploiting vulnerabilities in the system. How it works: The attacker sends excessive requests to a server or network, causing it to crash or become unresponsive. This leads to downtime for the targeted service, such as a website or online application. Example: If a website receives millions of requests in a very short time, it may not be able to handle that load and could crash or slow down significantly. 2. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) Attack: Definition: A DDoS attack is a more sophisticated and powerful version of a DoS attack. In a DDoS attack, the traffic originates from multiple sources, typically a network of compromised devices, also known as a botnet. How it works: The attacker uses a botnet (a group of infected computers or IoT devices) to send a massive amount of requests to the target server or network. This distributed nature makes the attack harder to defend against, as the traffic comes from many different locations, making it difficult to block. Example: A DDoS attack might involve a botnet of thousands or even millions of devices (like IoT cameras, routers, or personal computers) all sending requests to a website, overwhelming its servers and causing it to become unavailable. Key Differences: DoS: Single-source attack (one computer/server). DDoS: Multi-source attack (distributed across many devices, often in the form of a botnet). Impact: Both types of attacks can cause significant disruption to online services, leading to downtime, lost revenue, and damage to reputation. DDoS attacks, due to their scale, are usually more difficult to mitigate than DoS attacks. Prevention: DoS: You can limit the number of requests from a single IP, use firewalls, or employ rate-limiting techniques. DDoS: Protection typically involves specialized anti-DDoS services, cloud-based protections, or advanced traffic analysis tools that can filter out malicious traffic.