A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack involves multiple systems, which are often compromised, that flood the target system with network traffic to overwhelm resources and bandwidth, thereby disrupting service. While a DoS attack also disrupts service, it typically originates from a single source, making the option about a single IP less appropriate. Traffic shaping is a management technique and not an attack type, thus it is incorrect in this context. A SYN flood is a type of DDoS but the question describes a scenario involving multiple systems, which directly indicates a DDoS attack, making the general term more accurate in this context.