Staging MitM attacks on unencrypted communications is a piece of cake for hackers. This usually happens without you ever finding out, which makes it even more dangerous, because the attacker will start using your account and spying on you without leaving a trace.
#Passwords plus stolen device password#
This type of attack is also known as “bucket brigade.” As the name implies, in MitM, a malicious user intercepts communications between you and the online server you’re logging into, and steals your username and password when you submit them. The more advanced types of multi-factor authentication methods can prevent such attacks because they rely on the user knowing the password or PIN number, and having something, such as a fob or a mobile device, which the attacker doesn’t. Sadly, this is a guideline that many users do not take seriously, and strings such as “password” and “123456” continue to remain among the most popular passwords. For plain vanilla passwords, you can reduce the risks by choosing very strong and unpredictable passwords. Online services usually warn users when their account is being brute-forced or is trying to be accessed from an unknown location, so watch out and pay attention to the warnings your service provider gives you. More resourceful hackers use botnets (an army of zombie infected computers and connected devices that are at the command of a remote “herder”) to split the task, speed things up, and thwart the victim’s attempts to block out a single node that is trying to brute force its way in. Since trying millions of different possibilities is beyond human capacity and would take thousands of years, brute force attacks are usually staged through an automated program. That’s why you’ll also hear the name “dictionary attack.” Hackers usually have a dictionary of commonly used passwords and their different variations, which they use in brute force attacks. Brute force attacksīrute force is the most primitive and simple type of attack against passwords, and it involves guessing passwords by trying different possible combinations.
In this post, I’ll describe some of tools and tricks hackers use to either steal your password or bypass it. I’ve already discussed the inherent problems with passwords in a previous blog post, and I listed the possible alternatives to passwords in my latest piece in TechCrunch.
#Passwords plus stolen device skin#
As the saying goes, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” And this proverb exactly describes the situation with passwords.
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