What type of attack is characterized by overwhelming traffic causing service disruption?

A denial of service (DoS) attack is specifically designed to overwhelm a target system, service, or network with excessive traffic or requests, leading to disruption of legitimate users' access to that service. The primary goal of a DoS attack is to render the service unavailable, either temporarily or permanently, by exhausting resources such as bandwidth, processing power, or memory.

In a typical DoS attack, the attacker floods the target with high volumes of traffic, which can be achieved through various techniques such as sending numerous requests or exploiting vulnerabilities to increase resource consumption. This type of attack can severely impact user experience and organizational operations, making it crucial for security teams to implement measures to mitigate and respond to these threats effectively.

Recognizing a DoS attack's distinctive characteristics—traffic overload and service disruption—enables organizations to prepare appropriate defenses, ensuring network availability and reliability for users.