Degradation of Service Attack

Definition - What does Degradation of Service Attack mean?

A degradation of service attack is a type of denial of service (DoS) attack geared toward disrupting the service, speed and response time of a network or website. It is designed to degrade services of a target to its point before becoming partially or permanently unavailable.

Techopedia explains Degradation of Service Attack

A degradation of service attack is basically a DoS attack with slightly less intensity and severity. Like a DoS attack, a degradation of service attack works by employing a series of remote zombie or compromised computers that are infected with malware or a virus. These zombie computers simultaneously send a network/service request to the target system or website with the intention of slowing it down. Once successfully initiated, a degraded website or system becomes highly prone to a DoS attack.

Further, some hackers, malicious activists and even network/security administrators use degradation of service attacks to check or test the strength of a website/system against a full scale DoS attack.