A Man-In-The-Middle attack can affect anything from your phone to your laptop and even your smart television. Understanding how this type of cyber attack works can help you prevent and detect a Man-In-The-Middle assault, ensuring the safety of your devices and data. Man-in-the-Middle attacks can target confidential talks or transactions with banks and suppliers, allowing the attacker to lift or manipulate data. In an increasingly digital environment, being aware of Man-In-The-Middle attacks can save you a lot of time (and money) in terms of protecting passwords and sensitive data before they fall into the wrong hands.
A MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACK is a type of man-in-the-middle attack. While Man-In-The-Middle assaults can take a variety of forms, the basic premise of any hack is the same. A Man-In-The-Middle attack is exactly what it sounds like: a third party intercepts your communication with another person or service by inserting himself or herself in the middle of it. The attackers either might a passive eavesdropper or play an active role in modifying what information is transmitted or where it is delivered from this covert vantage point.
MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACKS: HOW DO THEY WORK? Airports are a typical area for individuals to connect to a shared network, making them particularly vulnerable to Man-In-The-Middle attacks. An attacker can use their phone to build a Wi-Fi hotspot with a network name that appears authoritative enough for others to connect. The attacker can scour the phone for useful and/or valuable data once their victim has joined the network. These hacks can potentially get access to your personal network. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one technique to protect against Man-In-The-Middle attacks, but it is not perfect.
Assume an attacker sends you a phishing link masquerading as an email login page. When you click the link, you will transport to a page where you will asked for your login and password. The Man-In-The-Middle attacker can then pass this information on to your email provider, causing them to transmit the MFA code to you, the account owner, via text message. The attacker now gets your email, password, and MFA code after you submit the MFA code onto the bogus webpage. At this point, the attacker can hoist something called a session cookie, which will allow them to log into your email and loot your inbox for all it is worth — quite the nibble for a hungry hacker.
TYPES OF MAN-IN-THE-MIDDLE ATTACKS, Man-In-The-Middle assaults can take various forms, but here are a few of the more common: Email hijacking – You may believe that no one cares about your innocuous email correspondence, but inboxes are a goldmine for interactions between services and clients, including banks and cards. A Man-In-The-Middle attack may target clients and steal their credentials by using a bogus email address. HTTPS spoofing – Another way attackers might target users is by creating a bogus website address. Man-in-the-middle attacks can fool individuals into a false feeling of security by closely replicating a website address, leading them to believe they are on an official site. This is a frequent method for obtaining login information.
IP spoofing – Using an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a similar approach can be used (the unique characters identifying devices over a network). The sender’s identity can hide by changing the IP address, allowing him or her to impersonate another computer system or person. As a result, internet users are at risk of disclosing personal information to the incorrect person. Wi-Fi eavesdropping – Arguably one of the simplest Man-In-The-Middle attacks, the attacker creates a legitimate-sounding Wi-Fi network and waits for the victims to connect voluntarily. If someone falls for the lure, the attacker will be able to listen in on his or her online activities.
