What is a DoS attack?

DoS stands for Denial-of-service, which means that the attacker would intentionally send network traffic to cause shut down to a machine or a network. In both cases, the DoS attack disposes the authorized users to access the data. The purpose of the DoS attack is not always to steal the data, but sometimes it causes the companies a waste of time or money. In a DoS attack, the targets are mostly web servers of big size organizations or companies. There are two forms of DoS attacks; Flooding services and Crashing services. Let’s discuss what these two mean.

Flooding services: Flooding services is when the attacker overflows the network traffic to an extent where web servers are unable to handle. Flooding services cause web servers to slow down. It is the most common form of DoS attack.

Crashing services: Crashing services is when the attacker intentionally sends information or overflows the network traffic that triggers the system or a machine to shut down.

There is another type of DoS attack called a DDoS attack. DDoS attack stands for Distributed-Denial-of-Service. Unlike the DoS attack, a DDoS attack is when the attacker sends traffic from different locations to overflow the network traffic. Below is a picture that will help understand the difference between DoS attack and DDoS attack.