Final answer:
A denial-of-service attack is an intentional action designed to prevent legitimate users from accessing a computer service. It involves overwhelming the target system with a flood of network requests.
Step-by-step explanation:
An intentional action designed to prevent legitimate users from making use of a computer service is called a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack). This type of attack is carried out by overwhelming the target system with a flood of network requests, causing it to become slow or completely unresponsive. Hackers often use botnets, which are networks of infected computers, to launch these attacks.