Internet / Network Security

  1. Home
  2. Computing & Technology
  3. Internet / Network Security

Denial-of-Service

By Tony Bradley, CISSP-ISSAP, About.com

Definition: A denial of service (DoS) attack floods a network with an overwhelming amount of traffic, slowing its response time for legitimate traffic or grinding it to a halt completely. The more common attacks use built-in “features” of the TCP/IP protocol to create exponential amounts of network traffic.
Also Known As: DoS, DDoS

Explore Internet / Network Security

More from About.com

Internet / Network Security

  1. Home
  2. Computing & Technology
  3. Internet / Network Security
  4. Security 101
  5. Computer Security Glossary
  6. D
  7. Network Security Glossary: Denial-of-Service (DoS)

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.