How to protect yourself from a Man In The Middle cyber attack?

Knowing how to protect yourself from cyber-attacks is the first step to prevent them from happening. Specifically, when we talk about Man in the Middle, we are referring to one of the most common and most difficult to detect types of attack. Here we show you in more depth what this type of attack is, how it is carried out by criminals and how to prevent it.

What is a Man In The Middle (MITM) attack?

To talk about Man in the Middle (MitM) is to include those involved, in Spanish this word means “man in the middle“, meaning that the attacker seeks to intercept, read or manipulate the data of a transaction or communication of the victim, without anyone realizing that there is a third person included.

Among all types of computer attacks, it can be both online and offline, making it appear as if a normal exchange is taking place, but in reality the hacker is obtaining information or manipulating it, with the intention of impersonating the victim.

In this way, the criminal gets to confidential and sensitive data such as bank accounts, credit card numbers or login credentials for use in theft or illegal fund transfers.

An example of this in the offline world would be the creation of fake invoices, which would then be sent to the victim’s email. And in the case of the online world, it would be when they insert malicious code into the system to collect the data entered in the browser.

 

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Phases of the intermediary attack

The offender carries out this attack in two phases: 

Phases of the intermediary attack

The first step is data interception, before the information reaches its destination. To do this, they can use various methods:

  • IP spoofing: hackers falsify the source of the data (the Internet protocol) of the computer, with which they connect to the network, creating a link between it and the offender’s computer, making it appear that they are communicating with the legitimate recipient.
  • ARP spoofing: consists of poisoning the ARP cache so that the hacker’s MAC (media access control) address can be linked to the victim’s IP.
  • DNS spoofing: The DNS (domain name server) system translates Internet domains into easy-to-remember titles and stores them in the cache. The attacker accesses the latter and changes the translations to redirect the user to fake sites.

After this, it decrypts the information that has been intercepted. As in the previous step, there are also several methods for this:

  • HTTPS spoofing: In this method, a fake security certificate is installed and provides the attacker with the key to decrypt the data being sent. 
  • Browser vulnerability in SSL: hackers exploit the block cipher vulnerability in the SSL protocol.
  • SSL hijacking: occurs when the browser first connects to a non-secure protocol (HTTP) and redirects the user to a secure version (HTTPS). In the process, the hacker reroutes the traffic route to your computer.
  • SSL stripping: the attacker uses any of the previous methods and once done, changes the secure version of the web (HTTPS) for an unsecured one (HTTP), so that the data arrives decrypted.

 

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Types of Man In The Middle attacks

To take appropriate security measures, it is important to know the types of Man in the Middle attacks and avoid problems that may affect your privacy. 

Recall that this attack has the same objective, but the way in which the information is accessed is different. We explain each of them below:  

Attacks based on DNS servers

In this type, the DNS server cache is manipulated by giving false addresses. They are usually more frequent in older versions of DNS software, as they are more vulnerable. In addition, on these computers, it is also much easier to send false records and poison the cache.

HTTPS Spoofing Method

The aim here is that the user gets to browse an unencrypted page through the different types of Internet search engines. In this way, the cybercriminal obtains the login data and can even make a payment. 

E-mail hijacking

This is one of the most common means used by criminals to carry out their actions. By gaining access to email, not only will they obtain private information such as messages, but they will also be able to access social networks or platforms that are connected to email, including bank accounts.

Browser cookie theft

Browser cookies store information about Internet surfers and attackers can obtain data such as names, passwords, sites visited and products viewed. 

Being one of the most common, what attackers are looking for when stealing browser cookies is to be able to log into the user’s different accounts. 

If you have a company, it may help you to read the articles of our business ally TAS Consultancy where you will have information about the creation of companies and about business growth in Spain.

How to detect a MITM attack?

When carrying out this attack, criminals try to obtain personal information in order to bribe, learn more about the consumer, find out what tastes he has or what sites he frequents.

Detecting a Man in the Middle attack can be a complicated task. They usually tend to go unnoticed because the victims are unaware that they have been intercepted, however there are certain things you can pay attention to, mainly the URL in the address bar.

Detecting if a website is secure

A secure signal is initially denoted by an ‘https‘ in the URL address. In case the ‘s‘ is absent and only the ‘http‘ is found it will represent a red flag that the website is not secure. 

Another way to verify this is to locate the SSL lock icon to the left of the URL. In addition, these pages tend to have a much slower loading time.

There are tools to detect a man-in-the-middle attack such as Wireshark, which analyzes network protocols and can detect ARP spoofing. 

It has a digital custody that protects the data of your digital certificate.

 

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Preventing man-in-the-middle attacks

As we have already seen, it is not easy to identify these attacks, so you must first know how to protect yourself from a cyberattack by intermediaries. Follow these recommendations to prevent them long before the criminal thinks of attacking you:

Do not connect to public WI-FI networks

Cybercriminals often spy on public Wi-Fi networks. It is best to assume that all public Wi-Fi networks are insecure and avoid connecting to unknown networks, much less if you are going to conduct a transaction with sensitive information.

Enter only secure websites

Enter websites that show the “HTTPS” with the “s” included or the SSL padlock, this means that you will be entering official and secure pages.

Logging out from sensitive web sites

After you finish making any banking or email transactions, log out and clear your cache to prevent any data theft.

Accept only necessary cookies

Cookies collect different types of information, and we often give you access to much of it without being aware of it or reviewing it. Always read the terms and the data they collect before accepting them. It is best to accept only those necessary to browse the site and to do so only with secure sites. 

Firewalls and antivirus

This will ensure connection security and preemptively detect any type of threat or suspicion if a site is dangerous.

 

The future is in your hands. Protect your confidential information and data, and make sure you know how to protect yourself from a Man in the Middle cyber-attack. Get more information about our prices and services at Gestion Direct or ask your questions at gestiodirect@gd.eu. 

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