Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

Updated 31 Jul 2026

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def
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  a denial of service attack launched from many computers at once (a botnet), overwhelming a target's bandwidth or resources
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scale
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  an asymmetric threat — the attacker may have far fewer resources than the victim overall, but coordinates thousands or millions of compromised devices; at its peak, the Zeus botnet infected over 3.6 million PCs
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related
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  Denial of Service (DoS)
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  DDoS Reflection and Amplification
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cards
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  What makes DDoS an 'asymmetric threat'?
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    The attacker may have far fewer resources than the victim, but coordinates a massive botnet (e.g. Zeus infected 3.6M+ PCs) to overwhelm it

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