Security Fundamentals Professional Certification (SFPC) Practice Test

A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is characterized by the use of multiple systems to overwhelm a target system. This form of attack involves a network of compromised computers, often referred to as a botnet, that simultaneously send a flood of traffic to a single target. The intention is to exhaust the target's resources, such as bandwidth, memory, or processing power, which can effectively render the service unavailable to legitimate users.

The nature of DDoS attacks, drawing on various sources to launch coordinated assaults, significantly amplifies their impact compared to single-source attacks. Because the incoming requests come from various locations, it becomes incredibly challenging for the target to distinguish between legitimate traffic and attack traffic or to effectively mitigate the assault.

Understanding this characteristic of DDoS attacks is crucial for recognizing how such threats can severely disrupt services and underscores the importance of robust network security measures to defend against them.