DDoS

[dee-daws, ‐-dos, dee-dee-oh-es]

adjective

1. pertaining to or being an incident in which a network of computers floods an online resource with high levels of unwanted traffic so that it is inaccessible to legitimate service requests.

   a DDoS attack.

DDoS

abbreviation

1. distributed denial of service: a method of attacking a computer system by flooding it with so many messages that it is obliged to shut down

Word History and Origins

Origin of DDoS¹

1995–2000; D(istributed) D(enial) o(f) S(ervice)

Example Sentences

Mr Musk has previously claimed that the platform has been targeted by DDoS attacks, but these have not been confirmed.

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They told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Whilst DDoS attacks are relatively low in sophistication and impact, they can cause disruption by preventing legitimate users from accessing online services."

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"It very well could be a DDoS attack," Matthew Prince, the head of security firm Cloudflare, told the BBC.

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Meanwhile Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, said the social media platform's explanation of how the issue was fixed "isn't particularly consistent" with a DDoS attack.

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"There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on X," Musk posted.

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