Distributed Denial Of Service attacks (DDoS).

Disclaimer: Information provided in this post if for educational purposes only. I hold no responsibly for actions preformed based on the knowledge gained here.

A distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) is when multiple systems flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system. The systems being used send a high amount of requests to the server,causing it to flood and eventually go offline. The bigger the server,the more requests it can handle,meaning that more systems would be needed to take the website offline.

Botnets are computers that have been compromised by attacks,normally through the use of Trojans,allowing the attacker to remotely control the system. Once enough is collected,these systems are controlled to create the high traffic needed for a successfully DDoS attack.

If an attacker mounts an attack from a single host it would be classified as a DoS attack. In fact, any attack against availability would be classed as a Denial of Service attack.

Advantages to an attacker of using a DDoS attack are that the more systems used can generate more attack traffic than one system, using multiple systems to attack means it would be harder to turn off than using one , and  these advantages cause challenges for servers under attack. For example, purchasing more incoming bandwidth than the current volume of the attack might not help, because the attacker might be able to simply add more attack machines.

There are many programs out there for using in a DoS attack,although many are unsafe.

Any type of Denial Of Service attack is illegal,and certain laws for some country's state that a maximum of 10 years could be sentenced for anyone who takes part in these attacks.