Hijacking

Similar to how a criminal hijacks a plane and takes control of a flight, several people are using this technique to assume control over computer networks. One of the most popular forms of hijacking is called a “man in the middle attack”, where an intruder takes control of an established connection during the communication process. This attack is very sophisticated as an intruder will intercept messages taking place in a public key exchange and retransmits them using their own public key. This leads the two parties to believe that they are still communicating directly with each other. The man in the middle attack is often used to gain access to messages, or to allow an intruder to make modifications to those messages. Another form of this attack is known as browser hijacking. This is where an intruder redirects a user to a site other than the one typed into an address bar. Browser hijacking is normally the result of DNS spoofing, an act where a Domain Name System is poisoned. In this instance, an attacker gains access to records on a DNS server and modifies them so that requests to fraudulent web sites appear genuine. This leads a visitor to believe that the site has been hijacked, when the DNS server is the actual victim.