Awareness Of Different Types Of Spoofing Attacks Can Keep Your Information Systems Intact

First understand what is spoofing. In the IT & Networking parlance, spoofing is the act of disguising of a communication from an unknown source as being from a known and trusted source. It is one of the modes of cyber-attacks employed by cybercriminals to meet certain malicious ends. Spoofing techniques include caller ID spoofing, Email spoofing, SMS spoofing, Website spoofing, IP spoofing, and DLL spoofing.

Cybercriminals use spoofing to gain access to the data targeted, as well as spread network malware. Many organizations fear the act of spoofing since it can lead to data breaches, the threat of infection of an information system network, and loss of revenue. Therefore, every organization uses spoofing prevention methods to avoid such problems.

A spoofing attack is a cyberattack carried out by a malicious party by imitating another user or device in a network. The hackers can steal data and spread malware. The cyber-attackers can use any spoofing attack. Most of the spoofing attacks fall under one of the different types, including ARP spoofing attacks, IP address spoofing attacks, and DNS server spoofing attacks.

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Types Of Spoofing Attacks

Although it seems quite simple to understand, there are many types of spoofing attacks enterprises need to learn about to know how to prevent it.

IP spoofing

Internet Protocol (IP) is the platform of the network that is used to exchange messages over the Internet. Details of every message that is sent is contained in the header of the IP address of the sender. Attackers disguise their messages by altering the header and editing the source address. It makes the emails look like to have posted by a trusted source. IP spoofing is of two types, namely,

  1. Denial-of-Service Attacks
  2. Man-in-the-Middle Attacks

ARP Spoofing

Local Area Networks that use ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) are capable of ARP spoofing attacks. It is a type of attack where the attacker uses falsified ARP messages and sends it through a local area network. It enables the attacker to link the MAC address with the IP address of another server. Once it is done, the attacker can access any data on the server. Moreover, the attacker can modify, intercept, and stop data transit.

DNS spoofing

The Domain Name Server maintains the domain names directory and translates them to IP. The DNS spoofing happens when a fake website pretends to be like a real one to obtain the targeted information of the users. This type of spoofing attack can prevail for long without being detected. It can lead to serious security issues.

How To Detect The Different Types Of Spoofing Attacks?

To protect your data and other essential information, you must have adequate knowledge about spoofing, mainly what is spoofing in computer networks.

How to detect IP spoofing attacks?

To detect IP spoofing can be detected with a bandwidth monitoring tool or a network analyzer. You will be able to identify the presence of unusual traffic.

How to detect DNS spoofing?

You can take different steps in detecting and preventing DNS spoofing attacks, such as

  1. Filter DNS servers
  2. Check whether the authoritative name server relates to what is locally resolved

How to detect ARP spoofing

You can recognize and protect your data from ARP spoofing attacks with the following options:

  • Packet filters
  • Using statistic ARP
  • Authentication and data encoding
  • Using VPNs
  • Using Anti-ARP tools
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Final Words

Less knowledge of subjects such as spoofing might lead to more significant vulnerabilities. Experience of spoofing detection and measures taken in advance to avoid spoofing can be beneficial to keep your business, its employees, customers, and business secrets safe. You can prevent any spoofing attack with measures taken in advance. Moreover, staying up to date and early detection of new techniques used for spoofing will allow you to be prepared and resist and control the scammers that try to access your information systems.

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