Which term describes an attack that uses a network of compromised devices to flood a target's resources?

Which term describes an attack that uses a network of compromised devices to flood a target's resources?

• A. DDoS
• B. Phishing
• C. SQL Injection
• D. Man-in-the-middle

Answer: (A)

A distributed denial-of-service attack describes an assault where many compromised devices are used to overwhelm a target’s resources. The attacker taps into a botnet—numerous devices infected with malware—to generate a flood of traffic or requests, saturating bandwidth, processing power, or memory and making the service unavailable to legitimate users. Because the traffic comes from many sources, blocking a single source is less effective, which is what makes DDoS particularly disruptive. This differs from other options: phishing aims to trick people into revealing credentials; SQL injection targets insecure inputs to manipulate a database; and a man-in-the-middle attack intercepts or alters communications between two parties. Recognizing that the goal is resource exhaustion via multiple sources clarifies why DDoS is the correct term.

A distributed denial-of-service attack describes an assault where many compromised devices are used to overwhelm a target’s resources. The attacker taps into a botnet—numerous devices infected with malware—to generate a flood of traffic or requests, saturating bandwidth, processing power, or memory and making the service unavailable to legitimate users. Because the traffic comes from many sources, blocking a single source is less effective, which is what makes DDoS particularly disruptive. This differs from other options: phishing aims to trick people into revealing credentials; SQL injection targets insecure inputs to manipulate a database; and a man-in-the-middle attack intercepts or alters communications between two parties. Recognizing that the goal is resource exhaustion via multiple sources clarifies why DDoS is the correct term.