The described threat is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. In security contexts, a DoS attack aims to make a system, application, or data unavailable to legitimate users by overwhelming resources. Unlike brute force or rainbow table attacks, which target authentication mechanisms, or encryption, which is a defensive control, DoS focuses on disrupting availability—the “A” in the Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability (CIA) triad.

DoS can be executed in many ways: flooding a network with traffic, exhausting server memory, or overwhelming application processes. When scaled by multiple coordinated systems, it becomes a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. In either case, the effect is the same—authorized users cannot access critical data or services.

For cloud environments, where service uptime is crucial, DoS protections such as rate limiting, auto-scaling, and upstream filtering are essential. Training data center engineers to recognize DoS helps them understand the importance of resilience strategies and ensures continuity planning includes availability safeguards.