Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS).

A Distributed Denial Service Attack is a cyber attack in which multiple compromised computer systems attack a target, such as a server, website or other network resource and cause a denial of service for users of the targeted resource. The flood of incoming messages, connection requests or malformed packets to the target system forces it to slow down or crash and shut down, thereby denying service to legitimate users or systems.

DDoS threats come in many forms, but by far the most common is a Volumetric attack where devices on the public internet are hijacked to overwhelm a specific target. These attacks can cripple the internet access to an organisation – freezing web, email and internet interactions. And traditional security devices such as firewalls, switches and routers simply cannot cope.