denial-of-service attack

Cultural  

1. Often spread by e-mail viruses, these are deliberately planned attacks on a companies or organizations, Web sites, or servers. They aim to shut down access to a site or key server by flooding it with massive requests, placing such great demands on the targeted information infrastructure that no one else can gain access to it. (See cyberwarfare.)

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Example Sentences

Also, a Ukrainian online bank said it fought off a massive distributed denial-of-service attack on Tuesday.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 2023

The websites of various Ukrainian government institutions, including Parliament, the Foreign Ministry and the cabinet of ministers, crashed after a denial-of-service attack.

From New York Times • Feb. 23, 2022

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian government’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security said that PrivatBank, the nation’s largest commercial bank, was hit with a denial-of-service attack that temporarily interfered with customers’ online banking transactions.

From Washington Post • Feb. 15, 2022

Other hackers launched a domain name system attack on the website, which one source described as similar to a denial-of-service attack.

From Reuters • Dec. 4, 2019

Gab, a social media service popular with some far-right figures, was temporarily inaccessible after its operators said it was being bombarded by a distributed denial-of-service attack by online vandals attempting to shut down the site.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 15, 2017