Network Attacks

Network attacks exploit weaknesses in computer networks, communication protocols and web applications. This lesson covers four key attack types required by the GCSE Computer Science specification: denial-of-service (DoS/DDoS), man-in-the-middle, brute force and SQL injection.

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Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack aims to make a computer, server or network resource unavailable to its intended users. The attacker floods the target with so many requests that it cannot respond to legitimate traffic.

How a DoS Attack Works

1. The attacker sends a huge volume of requests to the target server
2. The server's resources (CPU, memory, bandwidth) are consumed trying to process all the requests
3. Legitimate users cannot access the service — the website goes down or becomes extremely slow

Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)

A DDoS attack uses many compromised computers (called a botnet) to flood the target simultaneously. Because the attack comes from thousands of different IP addresses, it is much harder to block.