In this article, we will talk about spoofing attack, which is ruling the cyber security domain nowadays and let’s see how spoofing plays a major role in an attacker’s life cycle to spoof the person’s identity like email address, spoofing call, phone numbers, content spoofing, home address, social media accounts, IP address, DNS information etc. So without further ado, let us jump to the definition of Spoofing in cybersecurity. Cyber security certification programs are the best source of information on spoofing and other cyber threats.
An attack that appears like a legitimate one that traps people to fall into their hands and gives way to steal confidential information or data is called Spoofing. In simple words, Spoofing is not but a method to gain important or sensitive information from people behaving like genuine people or genuine customers. Cyber attackers often use well-known names and products while simulating these spoofing attacks.
Spoof term is often referred to as any kind of tampering or forging. Nowadays, the term spoofing is a very popular and prominent term in the cyber security domain. Spoofing can be performed in various ways through multiple methods & channels depending on the attack scenario. For a victorious attempt, a spoofing attack must be executed with the help of social engineering. Attackers use social engineering to gather users' personal information and use the same against the victims to blackmail, threaten, and fear them with stolen personal information. This makes the victim do whatever the attacker demands. In recent days, there has been a scam that has been found to be the talk of the town. i.e., grandchildren scam. Grandchildren scam is nothing, but the attacker pretends to be a member of the family and allegedly states that they are in trouble and require a lot of money to save them. These kinds of attacks are mainly framed to focus on the victims’ emotions and family situations.
Cybercriminals use deception techniques for spoofing attacks to portray as another user. The reason is simple, to hide their true identity to gain some sort of profit from the end users. Also, spoofing appears like some information followed by action items related to payment or financial actions. Spoofing works based on the attack scenario on how an adversary can target individual users. For example, the attacker will not be using his own mail server to send emails to users as his identity will be revealed. So he will use the mail server, which is already compromised. Also, he will be using public wifi’s in order to send emails to users to avoid track of him. Below are some common examples for your insights.
Let’s consider a scenario where the spoofing criminals can target you by sending a fake email that seems to originate from Amazon or Flipkart stating your last payment is not processed properly. Eventually, this could tempt some people to react to that email and respond to any links or attachments available in the email. From that link or attachment, the possibility of downloading malicious files or software prompts you to enter the login credentials, and you have responded. This is how Spoofing criminals steal your login credentials and gain your credit or debit card information, personal information, phone number, etc.
I hope everyone has faced this type of spoofed SMS where the sender's information is hidden, and the message will be appeared like “Dear, you have passed the interview, and the salary is Rs.15000 per month. For more details, please visit here (:// https [SomeMaliciousURL].com)”. If a person is seriously attending walk-in interviews and waiting for the result, these messages will make the person fall into this trap which could lead to losing his sensitive information.
Email spoofing is a common technique of threat actors to send emails with fake sender addresses, like a phishing attack designed to steal your data, demand money, or infect your system with viruses or malware. This tactic of spoofing is used by cybercriminals as an initial phase of the cyber attack, like the Information gathering stage.
Spoofed emails will appear in a fashion that will prompt a user to respond to the email or click the link embedded in the email, etc.
For example, cybercriminals will create an email that looks like it originated from PayPal where the body of the email is designed as “Response Required” and states that your account will be suspended if you are not responding to the link, which is embedded in the login word. The attacker will gain useful information and steal the money if the user is tricked successfully.
How to protect from Email Spoofing?
As you enroll in CEH certification courses , you can prepare for the certification exam along with learning ways to deal with email spoofing and other spoofing techniques discussed below.
Text Message or SMS spoofing is a technique of changing the originator details like a phone number or the source user identity for cheating or fraudulent purposes. You will not be able to block the SMS or reply to the message. The main motto of SMS spoofing is Impersonation. Scammers opt for this technique to hide their true identity and pose as a legitimate organization or company. These spoofed texts will often trick the users into responding to the URLs present, and there is the possibility of downloading the malicious file on mobile phones. Fake job offers, fake banking-related messages, fake lottery messages, money refund scams, and password reset messages are some examples of Text Message Spoofing.
Spoofed messages are difficult to identify until the person is aware of where to look for them. The sender’s name cannot be clicked and replied. A lot of spelling mistakes will be there in the spoofed texts. Since you cannot reply to the email, you will be informed to contact them over email or phone.
How to prevent Text Message Spoofing
Caller ID spoofing can be performed easily. Changing the Caller ID to any other number which does not belong to the actual calling number is called Caller ID spoofing. For example, call centers will use the client’s name and telephone number on behalf of the client’s company. Unfortunately, attackers will change the caller id information and misrepresent themselves as genuine person to get data from you. This spoofing attack will happen if and only if when the attacker has your phone number with him. Your contact number of yours might be leaked or given by someone who is used for spoofing purposes.
How to prevent Caller ID Spoofing
This is a type of spoofing attack where the attacker will behave like a person whom you trust or who lives nearby and knows all the information about you. But the attacker will hide his identity from you and act like your neighbor giving the attacker gain an advantage over you. Many callers will act like bank officers where you hold your bank account and contact you to provide confidential information, sensitive information like OTP, etc. Also, you would experience scam calls like Charitable calls to donate money on your birthdays. All these types of spoofing attacks happen based on the information available in the attacker's hands.
How to prevent Neighbour Spoofing
URL or Website spoofing is nothing, but the website is designed in a fashion which looks like a legitimate one to steal information about the users, install malware on their machine, record the session over the internet etc. These fake websites are often used for delivering phishing attacks. A fake login page could lead users to enter their login information. Spoofed websites can also be used for pranks and hoaxes.
How to prevent URL or Website Spoofing
GPS spoofing is an unusual spoofing technique until the attacker targets you with a specific motto or purpose. This technique will broadcast a bogus GPS location rather than the actual GPS location, which could lead the user to fall into the trap. Nowadays, GPS spoofing is used in gaming applications leading users to make vulnerable. The main motto of the attack is to override the original location of the device. Shipping companies, Construction companies, and Taxi services are most vulnerable to GPS spoofing attacks.
How to prevent GPS spoofing
This attack involves three people: the source user, the destination user, a criminal who is in the middle of the source user and the destination user. This cybercriminal will eavesdrop on all the communication happening between the source user & destination user and wait for the right time to perform the attack. The motto of the attacker is to intercept important & sensitive information. This stolen information will be used to perform financial transactions, approve transactions, and process that will be an advantage to him, not the actual user. Sniffing, Packet injection, Session hijacking, and SSL stripping are common techniques of Man-in-the-middle attacks.
How to prevent a Man-in-the-middle attack
IP or IP address spoofing refers to the creation of an IP address with fake Source IP details. This type of spoofing attack will happen when the attacker wants to hide the IP address information while sending requests or requesting information. The spoofed IP address will look like an IP address from a trusted source, but the actual source will stay remain. This spoofing technique will be used by attackers to perform cyber attacks like DDoS against a target device or target organization so that the actual source will not be identified. Since this attack is happening at the network level, the user will not be aware that IP is tampered with or IP is spoofed. Using botnets, attackers can easily perform an IP spoofing attack.
How to prevent IP Spoofing
The latest and most advanced form of spoofing is facial spoofing. Cybercriminals will use the person’s face and generate facial biometrics with the help of photos or video to replace the identity. This facial spoofing will be performed in banking frauds and attacks. Nowadays, it is also used in money laundering.
How to prevent facial spoofing
Extension spoofing is a technique where that cybercriminals use to run executable files which are malicious. Example: if the “test.txt” file is saved as .exe with it, the file becomes an executable one. Most of them are using this technique since the file extension is hidden and not visible in the system until the user checks the file properties for the file extension. Hence this becomes an advantage to the attackers to disguise executable malware files.
How to prevent Extension spoofing
Detecting spoofing attacks are easy when you have an idea of the below things.
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By the end of the article, we came to know what is spoofing attack is and how to detect & avoid this spoofing attacks. Always keep in mind these spoofing attacks will be executed successfully if you respond or react to them. Ensure twice or thrice before sharing any confidential information with anyone or anything. Think before you act.
An attack that appears like a legitimate one that traps people to fall into their hands and gives way to steal confidential information or data is called Spoofing. Phishing, on the other side, is a technique used to steal confidential information from users using social engineering methods.
The purpose of spoofing is to gain an advantage over the person by getting confidential or sensitive information from the user without revealing the actual identity. True identity will always be hidden.
Nowadays, spoofing is very common to gather information about the targeted user. This technique will be used as an Initial recon for information-gathering purposes. Based on that attacker will plan and perform a major cyber attack on individual users or organizations.
Device spoofing is a technique where the user will not have an idea what type of device the attacker is using (mobile phone, PC, tablet, etc.).
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