Loading
Nigeria's free digital learning hub. Videos, lecture notes, practice questions and leaderboards aligned with CCMAS, NBTE, NCCE, WAEC, NECO, IJMB and JAMB curricula.
Distributed systems are networks of independent computers that work together as a single cohesive system to store, process, and share data across multiple locations, enabling scalability, reliability, and fault tolerance. In a cyber context, distributed systems are central to cloud computing, cybersecurity defense, and large-scale data processing, but they also introduce vulnerabilities such as synchronization issues, network attacks, and data breaches due to their decentralized nature. Case studies highlight both benefits and risks—for example, cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services demonstrate how distributed systems provide resilient and scalable infrastructure, while incidents such as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks (e.g., the 2016 Dyn attack) show how adversaries exploit distributed networks to overwhelm services and disrupt global internet access. These examples illustrate the dual role of distributed systems as both enablers of modern digital services and targets or tools in cybersecurity challenges.
This lecture is part of CYB202 Operating system in cyber context in the Cyber Security department. The course has 15 recorded lectures across 5 series, all free to watch.