CompTIA CySA+ Practice Test 2025 – The Comprehensive All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is specifically designed to disrupt the normal functioning of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic or requests. This overloading prevents legitimate users from accessing the resources they need, effectively making the system or service unavailable. In many cases, DoS attacks exploit weaknesses in the victim's infrastructure or applications, thereby highlighting vulnerabilities that can lead to significant downtime and loss of service.

This type of attack can have severe consequences for businesses, as it not only impacts the availability of services but can also damage reputation and lead to financial losses. Knowing that a DoS attack focuses on unavailability clarifies why the other choices do not fit the definition. For example, options related to stealing data or gaining unauthorized access focus on different types of attacks, such as data breaches or intrusion attacks, while a strategy for improving network performance is unrelated to the intent of disrupting service.