The impact of a DDoS attack is mainly characterized by what effect on services?

The impact of a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is primarily characterized by complete service disruption. This type of attack targets the availability of services by overwhelming a network, system, or application with an excessive amount of traffic. As a result, legitimate users are unable to access the services they need, leading to significant downtime and disruption.

In a DDoS attack, the focus is not on stealing data or damaging data integrity but rather on making the service unavailable. This can result in loss of revenue, damage to reputation, and a decreased level of trust from users who rely on those services. Unlike other security incidents that may involve unauthorized access or compliance concerns, the defining feature of a DDoS attack is its capacity to interrupt the normal functioning of services completely.