Harhautushyökkäys

Harhautushyökkäys, often translated as "spoofing attack" in English, is a type of cyberattack where a malicious actor impersonates a trusted entity to deceive a victim. This deception can take many forms, aiming to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information, install malware, or disrupt services.

One common method is email spoofing, where an attacker sends emails that appear to originate from a legitimate source, such as a bank or a well-known company. These emails often contain malicious links or attachments designed to trick the recipient into revealing personal data or downloading harmful software. Another form is IP address spoofing, where an attacker modifies the source IP address of their network packets to conceal their identity or to impersonate a trusted host. This can be used in denial-of-service attacks to overwhelm a target system.

Caller ID spoofing is also a prevalent technique, where an attacker manipulates the caller ID information to display a different phone number than the one they are actually calling from. This is frequently used in phishing scams to gain trust by appearing to be from a legitimate organization. Website spoofing involves creating fake websites that closely resemble legitimate ones, luring users to enter their login credentials or other sensitive information. The primary goal of a harhautushyökkäys is to exploit the trust users place in familiar or official-looking sources, making them vulnerable to various forms of cybercrime.