Legal Definitions - distributed denial-of-service attack

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic from multiple compromised computer systems. Unlike a simple denial-of-service attack, which might originate from a single source, a DDoS attack leverages numerous devices (often part of a "botnet") to simultaneously send requests, making it much harder to stop and identify the true originators. The goal is to exhaust the target's resources, such as bandwidth, processing power, or memory, thereby making the service unavailable to its legitimate users.

Here are some examples illustrating a distributed denial-of-service attack:

• Example 1: Online Retailer During a Holiday Sale

  Imagine a popular online electronics retailer preparing for a massive Black Friday sale. Just as the sale is about to go live, their website suddenly becomes extremely slow, eventually crashing and displaying error messages to customers. Unbeknownst to them, a malicious actor has orchestrated a DDoS attack, using thousands of compromised computers worldwide to simultaneously try to access the retailer's product pages and add items to carts. This overwhelming surge of fake traffic consumes all the website's server capacity and bandwidth, preventing legitimate shoppers from accessing the site and making purchases. This illustrates a DDoS attack because the disruption comes from a multitude of sources, making the service unavailable to its intended users.

• Example 2: Government Tax Filing Portal

  During the peak tax season, a national government's online portal for filing income taxes experiences severe outages. Citizens attempting to submit their tax returns find the website unresponsive, frequently timing out, or displaying "service unavailable" messages. Investigations reveal that a coordinated DDoS attack was launched, with thousands of infected devices across different countries continuously sending requests to load various forms and pages on the tax portal. The sheer volume of these simultaneous, illegitimate requests overwhelms the portal's infrastructure, preventing law-abiding citizens from completing their tax obligations on time. This demonstrates a DDoS attack's ability to disrupt critical public services by flooding them with traffic from numerous distributed sources.

• Example 3: University's Online Learning Platform

  A large university relies heavily on its online learning platform for students to access course materials, submit assignments, and participate in virtual classes. On the day of final exams, students across various departments find themselves unable to log in or access their exam modules. The platform's servers are overloaded, and the system repeatedly crashes. It is later discovered that a DDoS attack was launched, possibly by disgruntled individuals, using a network of compromised devices to flood the university's servers with continuous login attempts and data requests. This barrage of traffic from multiple points renders the learning platform inaccessible, causing significant disruption to academic activities. This scenario highlights how a DDoS attack can cripple essential online services by overwhelming them with distributed, malicious traffic.