DDoS attacks are divided into two categories: reflected and direct. Reflected attacks use a third-party system to amplify the attack traffic and send it to the target. For example, an attacker can send a spoofed request to a DNS server, which will reply with a large amount of data to the target’s IP address. Direct attacks send the attack traffic directly from the attacker’s system or a botnet to the target. For example, an attacker can send a large number of SYN packets to the target’s port, exhausting its resources. References := Cisco Cybersecurity Operations Fundamentals, Module 1: Security Concepts, Lesson 1.3: Common Network Application Operations and Attacks, Topic 1.3.4: Denial-of-Service Attacks