Dangers for communications security

The threats to communications security on the Internet fall into the categories of active and passive attacks.

Active attacks on communications security

Active attacks on communications security include:

• Forging the address of the message sender (address spoofing)

• Forging the contents of the messages (tampering)

• Intercepting messages and reading them in again (capture replay)

• Changing the sequence of the messages sent

Passive attacks on communications security

Passive attacks on communications security include:

• Reading message contents

• Analyzing the traffic flow of the messages:

  • Who are the communications partners?

  • Message volume in terms of periods

  • Length and frequency of messages