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Degradation of Service Attack
Last Updated: December 20, 2012
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.
