Picture this: while anxiously awaiting the release of a limited edition sneaker, Tyler frequently checked his phone for SneakPeak Elite updates. One day, an email announced a pre-sale for loyal customers. Following the link, Tyler found a site identical to SneakPeak Elite and made his purchase with confidence. However, on Monday, unauthorized banking transactions revealed the truth: the phishing email and the fake site were part of a sophisticated Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack, and now a hacker had Tyler’s financial details. Even though, the MitM attacks were limited to the realm of tech-savvy criminals, they’ve become alarmingly common Recent reports have indicated that 19% of successful cyberattacks are MitM attacks and that more than 2 billion were lost worldwide due to these schemes. If you are involved in the digital realm of any e-commerce, financial technology or online payments company, understanding and thwarting these threats is not just a recommendation, it is an absolute necessity.
We share 11 preventive measures that you should implement now to avoid becoming a victim of this type of attack:
- HTTPS and secure connections
Making sure your website over HTTPS rather than HTTP means that data is encrypted and much more difficult for hackers to intercept. Always check for the green padlock symbol in the address bar, which affirms a secure connection.
- Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
VPNs create an encrypted connection from a user’s device to the network.
Routing traffic through a secure virtual tunnel makes interception a notable challenge for potential attackers.
- Public Key Fixing
This process involves associating a host with its expected public key, making sure that the public key remains the same during subsequent connections, to reduce the risk of MitM attacks during SSL/TLS link protocols.
- Periodic system updates and patches
Software developers frequently release updates to address known vulnerabilities. Upadting your systems and applying patches, regularly, can protect and applying patches can protect you from attackers exploiting these known vulnerabilities.
- Data encryption
Beyond secure connections, ensure that sensitive data, both in transit and at rest, is encrypted. This ensures that the data remains unintelligible to the intruder even if intercepted.
- Strong authentication protocols
Implement multifactor authentication. By requiring multiple forms of verification, it is extremely difficult for attackers to gain unauthorized access, even if they have intercepted some credentials.
- Network segmentation
Divide your network into multiple segments, ensuring that if one segment is compromised, it does not automatically compromise the entire network.
- Employee awareness and training
Most cyberattacks take advantage of human error. Regular cybersecurity awareness training sessions can ensure that employees recognize suspicious activity and are equipped with best practices to avoid inadvertent security breaches.
- Network traffic monitoring
Employ network monitoring tools to observe and analyze traffic for unusual patterns or suspicious activity. Immediate alerts can be set up for potential threats, ensuring timely interventions.
- Secure WiFi networks
Ensure that WiFi is secured using strong encryption methods, such as WPA3, and avoid using public WiFi for sensitive transactions without a secure VPN.
- Memcyco solution integration
Memcyco offers an outstanding defense against the dangers of counterfeit websites with a unique set of features:
- Real-time alerts: issues a real-time red alert to your customers who visit a fake site.
- Visibility: provides you with all the details of the attack to ensure complete visibility.
- Watermark: includes a customizable and unforgettable watermark that marks your sites as legitimate.
- Agentless: your customers don’t need to install anything or register anywhere.
- Easy implementation: simply add a few lines of code and start getting value in a matter of hours.
By employing Memcyco’s out-of-the-box, agentless solution, companies are protected during the critical window of exposure, the time when a fake website goes up until it is taken down. Companies benefit from less direct financial losses and improve trust among their customers, fostering better relationships and safeguarding their reputation. Memcyco ensures compliance (with regulations coming ever closer) and guarantees fewer data leaks and privacy issues, which could otherwise lead to account takeovers and ransomware attacks.
Would you like to learn more about this solution and its implementation? Contact us!
Email: contacto@gsb.lat
