Why is encryption alone ineffective against a SYN flood?

### Why this is right A SYN flood targets connection-establishment resources. The handshake occurs before protected application communication is available, so encryption does not prevent the server from receiving and managing incomplete requests. ### The concept Encryption protects data in transit from unauthorized reading, but it is not an availability control by itself. Filtering, firewalls, and proxy servers may help distinguish or limit traffic. The material notes that a secure protocol handshake does not stop a flood that attacks connection setup. ### The other options - **Encryption increases available network bandwidth**: encryption does not add link capacity. - **Encryption converts all attack packets into valid requests**: encryption does not validate the intent of a connection request. - **The attack changes database records rather than opening connections**: this describes a different kind of attack, not a SYN flood. ### Terms - **SYN flood**: an attack using many incomplete TCP connection requests. - **Encryption**: transforming data so it cannot be read without the appropriate key. ### Remember Confidentiality controls do not automatically solve availability attacks.