How do denial-of-service (DoS) attacks disrupt network services?

Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks disrupt network operations by overwhelming a network or server with a flood of illegitimate traffic, rendering it unable to respond to legitimate requests. This results in a significant slowdown or complete shutdown of services, causing disruption to users.

Several measures can be implemented to counteract DoS attacks:

1. Firewalls: Firewalls can be used to filter incoming traffic and block malicious requests before they reach the network or server.

2. Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS): IPS can detect and prevent DoS attacks by analyzing network traffic for any unusual patterns or suspicious activities.

3. Load Balancers: Load balancers can distribute incoming traffic across multiple servers, preventing any single server from being overwhelmed during an attack.

4. Rate Limiting: Implementing rate limiting controls can prevent an excessive amount of requests from reaching the server, thereby mitigating the impact of a DoS attack.

5. DDoS Mitigation Services: Third-party DDoS mitigation services can help defend against large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by filtering out malicious traffic before it reaches the network.

6. Network Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of network traffic can help in early detection of DoS attacks, enabling swift responses to mitigate their impact.

Remember that it’s important to have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy in place to prevent and mitigate the impact of DoS attacks.