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A denial of service (DOS attack)  is an attempt to make a website or internet service unavailable to its users. Depending on the configuration of  the servers where the website or service is hosted, the effect of the DOS attack may be minimal or the service will be unavailable for a long time. High profile (and high traffic) websites  are more likely to be the target of  a DOS attack .

The symptoms of  a DOS attack are as follows:

1. Slow opening of  files or accessing of  websites due to slow network performance

2. Non-availability / difficulty accessing  the targeted website

3. Significant increase in the number of  spam emails received.

Most DOS attacks are implemented by either using web server resources by increasing CPU load,  restarting the web server or consuming so much bandwidth that genuine users of  the website are unable to access it.