Which type of attack aims to make a system unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic?

• A. Phishing attack
• B. Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack
• C. Man-in-the-middle attack
• D. Ransomware attack

Answer: (B)

A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is designed specifically to make a system or service unavailable by overwhelming it with traffic or requests. This is achieved by flooding the target with excessive requests that consume its resources, such as bandwidth, processing power, or memory, rendering it unable to respond to legitimate users. The goal of a DoS attack is to disrupt the normal functioning of a website or service, often leading to downtime and financial loss for the affected organization.

In contrast, phishing attacks focus on deceiving individuals into revealing sensitive information, man-in-the-middle attacks involve intercepting communication between two parties, and ransomware attacks involve malicious software designed to encrypt data and demand payment for decryption. Each of these other attack types has different objectives and methods, distinguishing them from the primary goal of a DoS attack, which is to create unavailability through resource exhaustion.