Cybercrimes have been increasing over the decade, and everything being digitized might even become more frequent in the future. Be it a person or an organization, everyone is at equal risk of falling prey to cybercrime. Among them is IP spoofing, one of the standard methods the attackers use to get into one’s device. As geeky and irrelevant it may sound to an ordinary person, it is no joke about data theft. Read this in-depth article by Router Login to understand better. Our website features how-to guides and tutorials for the latest routers and various IP Addresses that one can use while logging in to your networking device.
IP Spoofing
To start with, what is an IP address? Just like we have identities, every device is identified by its IP (Internet Protocol) address on the internet. It allows the transfer of information between the devices in a network.
However, it is not always safe and secure, potentially getting stolen or misused. With access to our IP address, the hacker may tap into our data or commit cyber crimes under our name. This kind of impersonation is referred to as IP spoofing.
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Let us see how IP spoofing happens
There is a protocol for exchanging information between the sender and the receiver devices.
Firstly, to establish a connection between them, the sender sends an SYN message to the receiver. Upon receiving this message, the receiver sends a similar message called the ACK message to the sender. And after that, the source sends an SYN-ACK message confirming a secure connection. This entire protocol is called a TCP handshake. This is right where the hackers intercept to perform IP spoofing. They fake the source’s confirmation with a spoofed IP address simulating that of the sender.
Possible Motives behind IP spoofing
- To perform a denial of service attack (DDoS attack): These attacks are very troublesome for those running high-profile organizations, especially finance, banking, or even government organizations. By performing IP spoofing, the hackers make the target servers shut down or crash. Now, there are two methods to do that. Either they storm the server with multiple requests to get it to slow down and eventually stop, or they send some information that stimulates the device to crash.
- Man-in-the-middle attacks happen in public Wi-Fi such as cafes, malls, and airports. Here, the information exchange appears secure but at constant risk as the hackers can intercept all the data exchanged between two parties. It is like a postman opening our mail, noting our bank account details, and delivering the letter by carefully resealing it.
- To pass through the firewalls: It is one of the main reasons a person attempts IP spoofing. When the perpetrator’s IP address happens to be blocked or wants to get into a company that accepts connection only from a trusted and legitimate IP address, IP spoofing serves their purpose to get past their firewalls.
How to avoid IP spoofing
Knowing how harmful IP spoofing can be, it is a relief to know how to prevent it.
- Constantly monitor your network for any strange or uncanny activity.
- Whenever the information is exchanged between devices, it is done in the form of packets. Each packet has information about the source. All these packets are reassembled in the receiver device to protect the information. Via IP spoofing, the address of the head is altered with a false or spoofed address, and receivers receive it. So, we can install packet filtering systems to detect any outgoing packets with unmatched IP addresses in a company’s server.
- Using robust verifications methods to avoid receiving spoofed packets
- As for man-in-the-middle attacks, using a VPN helps avoid falling victim to IP spoofing.
How to protect against IP an spoofer
Cyber attacks cost businesses an average of $200,000 per incident. Since IP spoofing is one of the most accessible attacks and one of the most destructive, protecting the top of the to-do list makes sense. These are the standard solutions
- USE FILTERS: Set up systems to examine the source headers of incoming IP packets. If something is not up to a point, reject those packets outright until the issues are solved. It uses a similar system to verify the headers of packets leaving your servers too.
- ENHANCE VERIFICATION: Don’t allow connections to stay open without some checking or quality control. Your users may have more work to do rather than maintaining a relationship. Still, you’ll ensure that an attack doesn’t occur as you’ve invested time and taking concerns in advance of this serious issue, and hence the problem will be solved that can be devastating if not solved at early premises.
- USE DNSSec and DANE TLSA: Digital signing helps assure users that the data originating from the stated source was not modified in transit.
- USE IP LEVEL ENCRYPTION: One needs to keep the standard as strong as possible so that the hacker is restrained from understanding the server and the data when it moves from one place to another.
Ongoing monitoring is also very critical. It is tough to pinpoint an IP spoofing attack. Still, when unusual activity is noticed, including a spike in the server’s request, we could have a problem in play that needs our full attention and a speedy remedy right at the moment.
