Refer to the exhibit. What type of attack or issue is indicated by the patterns shown in the metrics and map?

Question

Options

• Aman-in-the-middle attack
• Binvalid SSL certificate
• CDNS hijack
• DDDoS attack

• A
  31% (8)
• B
  8% (2)
• C
  15% (4)
• D
  46% (12)

Explanation

D is correct because a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack is characterized by massive, abnormal traffic spikes originating from multiple geographic sources simultaneously - exactly what a metrics graph (showing sudden traffic surges) and a world map (showing distributed source IPs) would reveal together. The "distributed" nature across many locations is the visual giveaway.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (Man-in-the-middle): MITM attacks intercept traffic between two parties and leave no obvious traffic volume spike or geographic distribution pattern - they're stealthy by design.
• B (Invalid SSL certificate): This is a configuration/PKI issue, not an attack pattern visible in traffic metrics; it would show up as browser warnings or handshake errors, not traffic floods.
• C (DNS hijack): DNS hijacking redirects DNS queries to malicious servers - it affects where traffic goes, not how much traffic there is, and wouldn't show the multi-origin flood pattern on a map.

Memory tip: Think D = Distributed = Dozens of dots on a map. If the exhibit shows traffic coming from many countries at once with volume spikes, the "D" in DDoS matches the "D" in Distributed sources on the map.

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