How Man-In-The-Middle Attacks Work – A Real-World Example?

Answer 1

An employee is chatting with their boss through an unsecured Wi-Fi network The boss informs the employee to urgently transfer an amount to a specified bank account number A hacker intercepts this conversation and changes both the amount and the bank account number in the message that is received by the employee The employee performs the transaction and sends a message to the boss confirming that the amount has been transferred to the bank account number The hacker changes the amount and account number back to the original data before the confirmation message reaches the boss By using this MITM cyberattack, the hacker is able to steal funds from the organisation without arousing suspicion while the attack is in progress

It should be noted here that MITM attacks need not be limited to digital interaction between humans. Communication from and to machines, and even between machines, may also be intercepted e.g., IoT devices may be compromised by MITM attacks to carry out industrial espionage or sabotage by either modifying the data they report or the instructions they receive.