What is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack?

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About Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack:

A DDoS attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic.
It is a cyber crime to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites.
DDoS attacks achieve effectiveness by utilizing multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic.
Exploited machines can include computers and other networked resources, such as IoT devices.
Unlike other kinds of cyberattacks, DDoS assaults don’t attempt to breach your security perimeter. Rather, a DDoS attack aims to make your website and servers unavailable to legitimate users.
DDoS can also be used as a smoke screen for other malicious activities and to take down security appliances, breaching the target’s security perimeter.
How does a DDoS attack work?
- DDoS attacks are carried out with networks of Internet-connected machines.
- These networks consist of computers and other devices (such as IoT devices) which have been infected with malware, allowing them to be controlled remotely by an attacker.
- These individual devices are referred to as bots (or zombies), and a group of bots is called a botnet.
- Once a botnet has been established, the attacker is able to direct an attack by sending remote instructions to each bot.
- When a victim’s server or network is targeted by the botnet, each bot sends requests to the target’s IP address, potentially causing the server or network to become overwhelmed, resulting in a denial of service to normal traffic.
- Because each bot is a legitimate Internet device, separating the attack traffic from normal traffic can be difficult.

Q1: What is Malware?

Malware, or malicious software, is any program or file that is intentionally harmful to a computer, network or server. Types of malware include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware and spyware.

Source: What Is “DDOS Attack” Flagged By Elon Musk That Hit Donald Trump Interview?