What is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack?

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is defined as an overwhelming of resources to disrupt service. This type of attack aims to make a service or network resource unavailable to its intended users by consuming its resources, whether that be bandwidth, server capacity, or system memory. The result is that legitimate users cannot access the affected service.

This disruption can be achieved in various ways, such as flooding the network with excessive traffic, exploiting vulnerabilities in software to crash services, or sending malformed packets that cause services to hang or become unstable. The primary objective of a DoS attack is to deny legitimate users access to the system or application, thereby causing inconvenience and potential financial loss for businesses that rely on consistent availability.

The other options represent different cybersecurity threats or methods. For instance, attempting to infect a network with malware refers to a different kind of attack with the goal of compromising the integrity or confidentiality of data, while securing network access pertains to protecting resources from unauthorized access. Capturing user credentials involves methods like phishing or keylogging, which also target information security but remain distinct from what describes a denial of service.