Introduction

Abstract

Contemporary society has grown increasingly reliant on information and the systems used to store, process, and communicate that information. Consequently very few aspects of modern-day life would continue to operate smoothly in the absence of functioning information and communications systems. This increasing societal dependence on information and communications technologies in general and communications networks in particular is most obvious when the delivery of services via these systems and networks is disrupted even for relatively short periods. Such situations in which access to networked services by legitimate customers or clients is deliberately disrupted are collectively categorised as ‘denial of service’ or DoS attacks. These are the subject of the ensuing discussion.