What characterizes a Denial of Service (DoS) attack?

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack is characterized by overwhelming a targeted system with an excessive amount of requests, which can cause the system to become slow, unresponsive, or completely unavailable to legitimate users. The primary goal of a DoS attack is to disrupt the normal functioning of the targeted service or network by consuming its resources, such as bandwidth, processing power, or memory. This leads to a state where authorized users cannot access the services they need, hence the term "denial of service."

In this context, options that deal with infiltration, automation of software updates, or establishing secure connections do not adequately describe the nature of a DoS attack. They refer to other aspects of network security or management, which are unrelated to the unique behavior of a DoS attack focused on service disruption through resource exhaustion.