Question

A network administrator attempted to access the company website and received a "page not found" error. The next day, the administrator checked the web server logs and noticed that during the same hour that the site failed to load, there was an unusually large number of requests for the website home page. All of the requests originated from the same IP address. Given this information, what might the network administrator conclude?

a. It is normal web surfing activity.
b. It is likely that someone attempted a DoS attack.
c. The link to the website does not have enough capacity and needs to be increased.
d. The web server was turned off and was not able to service requests.

Answer 1

The network administrator might conclude that someone attempted a DoS attack based on the unusually large number of requests from the same IP address during the hour the site failed to load.

Step-by-step explanation:

Based on the given information, the network administrator might conclude that someone attempted a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. A DoS attack is when an attacker overwhelms a network or server with an excessive number of requests, causing the server to become unresponsive or crash. In this case, the unusually large number of requests for the website home page from the same IP address during the hour the site failed to load indicates a possible DoS attack.

The other options can be ruled out because:

• a) It is not normal web surfing activity as there was an unusually large number of requests from the same IP address for the website home page.
• c) The link to the website's capacity does not seem to be the issue because the requests were received by the server, but the page did not load.
• d) The web server was not turned off as there was evidence of requests being received, but it might have been overwhelmed or unresponsive due to the high number of requests.