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Simply
put, MITM is an attack in which a third party gains access to the
communications between two other parties, without either of those parties
realising it. The third party might read the contents of the communication, or
in some cases also manipulate it. So, for example, if Gerald sends Leila a
message, intending it to be private, and Max intercepts the message, reads it,
and passes it on to Leila, that would be a MITM attack. If Gerald wants to
transfer £100 to Leila’s bank account, and Max intercepts the transaction and
replaces Leila’s account number with his own, that would also be a MITM attack
(in this case, Max is putting himself ‘in the middle’ between Gerald and his
bank).
Why should I care?
Partly
because MITM attacks can undermine so much of our modern way of life. In a
connected life, we depend on the reliability and security of every connection.
It’s not just about your conversations, messages and emails, either. If you
can’t trust the connections you make to websites and online services, you may
be vulnerable to fraud or impersonation, and if your connected devices and
objects can’t communicate securely and reliably, they may put Continue reading
