Spoofing
Spoofing refers to a type of attack where an individual successfully poses as another through falsified information to obtain a legit advantage. Spoofing is used togain access to targets personal information and spread malware and viruses to the network access controller congest traffic hence leading to the denial of service attack, spoofing results to immense cyber attacks such as the man in middle attack or advanced persistent threat. When spoofing is carried out successfully in organizations it infects the entire computer system and networks hence resulting to loss of revenue and data breach; such liabilities affect the organizational reputation and loss of trust by consumers since their personal information will be leaked out.
Additionally spoofing is applied to various communication methods depending on the technical know-how of the attacker, spoofing can be used to achieve pishing attacks which ensures that sensitive organizational information is gained.
Types of spoofing include email, caller ID, website, IP and ARP spoofing. Email spoofing refers to forgery of an email header for the purpose making the mail to appear as legit message from the actual source, the tactic is usually used in pishing and spam attack because individuals usually open mails when they think that they know the source, the aim of email spoofing is to ensure that the recipient open and even respond to the mail. Spoofed emails pose severe threats for network security; for instance, the clicking of the mail can result in the installation of malware on the recipient computing device.
IP spoofing occurs when hackers gain unauthorized access to computer networks, and illicitly impersonates another machine by manipulating IP packets, the type of spoofing ensures that IP packets are modified and the packet header spoofed. When the packet leaves the computer, it will arrive at the next destination as a different order. Hackers use IP spoofing to perform activities such as denial of service and man in the middle attack, such causes havoc over the system since the identity is hidden.
ARP spoofing is a type of technique where attackers send ARP messages on local hosts with the aim of associating MAC address with the IP address of another host; this results to congestion of traffic on the IP address of the attacker. Consequences of ARP spoofing include interception of data frames on a network, stopping data traffics or modification of traffics, such attacks are used to make the network system vulnerable to attacks such as denial of service.
Website spoofing refers to the creation of a website with the intention of misleading users that site was created by a given individual or organization. Usually, spoofed websites adopt designs of the target network URL and ensure that the victim’s traffic goes through the attacker’s machine hence obtaining sensitive information. Finally, caller ID spoofing is the practice where attackers use telephone networks to indicate that the caller is from a source for collecting confidential information.
Conclusively various types o spoofing results to the installation of malicious programs successful on another person’s network by the impersonating attacker, this results to obtaining sensitive information from organizations and spreading malware that impacts on a company’s reputation.