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The Advent of Pro?¬?table Digital Crime 21
Attacks in the Information-Transfer Phase
Let??™s assume that our computer is malware-free and that we are
entering our private data in the intended application or website,
as opposed to one of the phishing fakes described in the preceding
section. Unfortunately, we can??™t relax yet; the bits we just
typed still have to travel for a long distance before reaching the
intended destination, and there are plenty of chances for attackers
to compromise unprotected information in transit (see
Figure 1-1).
For connecting a local computer network to the Internet, it is
enough to link one node of such a network to a machine that is
already part of the Net. Such a model is extremely handy because
it allows growth to occur on the periphery without involving
a central authority. The probability that two different
computers are connected by a single direct link is negligible. In
the vast majority of cases, information is routed through a number
of intermediary nodes before reaching its ultimate recipient.
The ?¬?rst segments of the trip are generally known; when we
When the information
leaves your
computer, you have
little control over it
Data packets follow
a tortuous path
before reaching
their destination
101101001
101001010
010101010
101010101
010101111
110011010
Figure 1-1 The journey of a packet from the user machine to its destination.
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