What is spoofing or identity theft?

Definition of spoofing

Spoofing involves disguising communication from an unknown source as communication from a known and trusted source. In short, spoofing is a social engineering attack. It can range from attempting to act as a trusted friend of the victim to imitating a widely trusted website or official organization.

This is the most common and easiest attack for hackers to carry out. It requires little or no development knowledge and minimal preparation. This ease of access makes it an attractive choice for cybercriminals around the world.

For example: emails from well-known e-commerce sites such as Amazon.

Types of spoofing

Email impersonation

These spam emails pretend to be from large companies offering you special deals or contacting you because you "owe" them money or information...

Pay close attention to the domain names in these emails. With many email services, you will need to click on the name to make the full domain name visible. If you have any doubts, contact the sender when possible or visit the company's website to find out more.

IP spoofing

IP spoofing is a more advanced cyberattack in which the attacker tricks your system into believing that an incoming packet is coming from a trusted IP address on the network. As such, your computer freely allows the spoofed IP address to enter.

Website hijacking

Website spoofing, although not as common as email spoofing, remains a widely used scam. This type of cyberattack uses a website domain name that is similar enough to the official, trusted website that users don't notice when they arrive there. Attackers can send victims there either by giving them a broken link with an identical URL or by adding typos to the addresses of major websites.