From Wikipedia: A denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) is an attempt to make a machine or network resource unavailable to its intended users. http://bit.ly/17NwZcb
The Digital Attack Map by Google Ideas and Arbor Networks was created to raise awareness about distributed denial of service attacks in real time around the world.
For whatever the reason to attack (activism, money, anarchism or pure hacking sometimes with malevolent intention) the damages are immeasurable and it most probable continue for a long time. And just as an example, take a peak on previous attacks and their targets in this Digital Attack Map:
Made utilizing assault information from Arbor’s “Atlas® worldwide danger discernment framework” Google and Arbor clarify that “locales blanket decisions are cut down to impact their conclusion, media destinations are ambushed to edit stories, and organizations are taken disconnected from the net by contenders searching for a leg up.”
Map by Everaldo Coelho and YellowIcon