TECHNIQUES FOR VALIDATING DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACKS BASED ON SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT

A technique for validating a distributed denial of service attack against a computer network service associated with a computing device adapted to be connected to a computer network includes monitoring requests to the computer network service on the computer network. Social media for current trending topics or popular items is monitored to detect content directly linked to content located on the computing device or directly related to content located on the computing device. Responsive to the monitoring requests to the computer network service indicating an increased number of requests and the monitoring social media indicating that content located on the computing device or directly related to content located on the computing device is currently trending or popular, a response provided to the requests to the computer network service is modified to avoid overloading the computer network service.