Any connection on the internet can be hijacked by information criminals, better known as hackers. The hackers are usually well-versed in networking and can take advantage of a network structure to gain access to the information systems connected by a poorly laid out network. The design of a network determines the ease with which the hackers will get in between the two systems and monitor the information flow, even stealing some of the information. It is still in transit and hijacking the connection used to transfer information between the two systems.
Whenever a connection is being established between two parties on the internet who want to pass information between each other, there has to be a handshake. The handshake in the initial step of starting the connection makes sure that the two parties are fully aware of one another’s identities, and none of them is in the dark about the transactions that are about to transpire. A handshake also makes it possible to share encryption and information signing details between the two parties. Even when they share encrypted information, they can still make sense of it once it has arrived at either end.
Hackers will usually take advantage of a connection while it is in the establishment stage and try to play tricks such as being the party in the middle known to both the parties engaged in the conversation. In a typical man in the middle attack, the hacker will hijack the connection and pretend to be the receiver to the sender and the receiver. Both the parties will be totally unaware of this fact and will always assume that it is the other passing the information along. However, a nasty trick is usually in the offing with the man in the middle, pretending to be either party and being a silent part of the conversation. A lag in the information can detect a man in the middle attack, but in most cases, these attacks are the hardest to detect, and information gets stolen in this manner.
One of the best ways of preventing the man in the middle attack is by changing or switching up identity verification for both the parties involved in the communication, and this will not only be a means to discouraging the hacker from being part of the conversation but it also helps to detect that there is an actual hacker that is trying to play both the sender and the receiver in the conversation. The switching up of the security protocols and random changes of the keys being used ensures that the man in the middle is discovered early, and the conversation cut off if it is too sensitive. With this in mind, hackers will no longer be able to get in the middle of the handshake protocol. This establishes and maintains that the two parties are theoretically shaking hands throughout the conversation, and nothing gets in between.
