Which term describes an attack targeting the availability of a service or process, potentially causing downtime?

Which term describes an attack targeting the availability of a service or process, potentially causing downtime?

• A. Service disruption
• B. Extortion
• C. Disinformation
• D. Blackmail

Answer: (A)

When a security event targets the ability of users to access a service, the focus is on disrupting availability and causing downtime. That outcome is described by the term service disruption. It captures the effect of the attack—rendering the service unavailable or severely degraded. Extortion, disinformation, and blackmail describe motives or tactics that are not specifically about making a service unavailable. Extortion involves demanding payment, disinformation is about misleading information, and blackmail is threats for coercion. While some attacks aimed at disrupting a service can be linked to extortion in practice, the best descriptor for the attack’s impact on availability is service disruption.

When a security event targets the ability of users to access a service, the focus is on disrupting availability and causing downtime. That outcome is described by the term service disruption. It captures the effect of the attack—rendering the service unavailable or severely degraded.

Extortion, disinformation, and blackmail describe motives or tactics that are not specifically about making a service unavailable. Extortion involves demanding payment, disinformation is about misleading information, and blackmail is threats for coercion. While some attacks aimed at disrupting a service can be linked to extortion in practice, the best descriptor for the attack’s impact on availability is service disruption.