What kind of threat does a DDoS attack pose to a website?

A DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack poses a significant threat to a website primarily by disrupting normal server functioning. This type of attack involves overwhelming a server with a flood of traffic from multiple sources, often resulting in the server becoming slow or completely unresponsive. The primary goal of a DDoS attack is to make a service unavailable to its intended users by consuming resources and bandwidth, which directly impacts the server's ability to handle legitimate requests.

When a server is under attack, it can lead to downtime, service degradation, and a poor user experience, ultimately harming the reputation and reliability of the affected website. In severe cases, prolonged DDoS attacks can also disrupt business operations and result in financial losses.

The other options describe scenarios that do not directly relate to the effects of a DDoS attack. For example, loss of data integrity typically relates to unauthorized access or data breaches, increased loading speed is an outcome that contradicts the nature of a DDoS attack, and improved performance monitoring does not reflect the operational disruptions caused by such attacks. Hence, the correct answer highlights the core impact of DDoS threats on normal server functioning.