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Home / Glossary / DoS
Glossary · Security

DoS

Denial of Service

In plain language

An attack that floods a website or service with so many requests that real visitors cannot get through.

The metaphor

Like one prankster calling a shop's only phone line nonstop so no customer can ever reach the counter.

Going deeper

How it works

  • A single source sends far more requests than the service can handle.
  • The service slows or stops until the flood ends.
  • Small sites are rarely the target; they are more often caught in shared-hosting fallout.
  • The fix is filtering at the edge, before traffic reaches your server.
In practice
  • A restaurant's online ordering page goes down on a busy Friday.
  • A shop's website is sluggish and the hosting provider traces it to bad traffic.
  • A firm's VPN login page is hammered with connection attempts.

A question owners ask

Can a small business be hit by this?

It happens, usually through shared hosting or as a threat made during an extortion attempt. Keep hosting and DNS with a provider that filters bad traffic.

Related terms
AAAAuthentication, Authorization, and AccountingAccount takeoverACLAccess Control ListAdmin accountAESAdvanced Encryption StandardAES-256Advanced Encryption Standards 256-bitAISAutomated Indicator SharingAPTAdvanced Persistent Threat

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