What is a denial-of-service (DoS) attack designed to do?

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack specifically aims to make a service unavailable to its intended users by overwhelming it with an excessive amount of traffic or requests. This flood of traffic can saturate the network bandwidth, exhaust server resources, or exploit vulnerabilities within an application, leading to a situation where legitimate users cannot access the service.

Understanding the nature of a DoS attack is essential for cybersecurity professionals as it highlights the importance of robust network architecture, effective traffic management, and disaster recovery plans. By recognizing that the primary objective of a DoS attack is disruption, security measures can be implemented to prevent and mitigate such incidents, ensuring that services remain available to users.