A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic. The attack comes from multiple sources, often a network of compromised computers or devices called a botnet. This makes DDoS attacks harder to block and more disruptive than a standard denial-of-service (DoS) attack.
A DoS (denial-of-service) attack works similarly but uses a single source to flood a target with traffic or exploit vulnerabilities. While a DoS attack can slow down or crash a system, it’s easier to detect and defend against because the traffic comes from one place.
The key difference is scale. A DoS attack is launched from one source, while a DDoS attack comes from many, making it more difficult to mitigate and more damaging to the target. The goal of both is the same: to make a service slow, unreliable, or completely unavailable to legitimate users.