Final answer:
The ping of death is a Denial of Service attack that involves sending oversized or malformed packets to a target system, causing it to crash or become unstable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The type of attack known as the ping of death is a Denial of Service (DoS) attack. In this kind of cyber attack, an attacker sends malformed or oversized packets using the ping command to crash, destabilize, or freeze the targeted system or network. The ping of death exploits vulnerabilities in the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) used for sending error messages. The packets sent are typically larger than what the protocol allows (65,535 bytes), causing the target system to malfunction.