MS-ISAC Guide to DDoS Attacks

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an attempt to overwhelm and render a system unavailable to intended user(s), such as preventing their access to a website. A successful DoS attack consumes all available network, application, or system resources, usually resulting in a network slowdown, application crash, or server crash. When multiple sources coordinate in a DoS attack, it is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.

In this guide, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) discusses the common methods and techniques which cyber threat actors (CTAs) use to generate an effective DDoS attack. The MS-ISAC also provides recommendations for defending against a DDoS attack.