What occurs during a "spoofing" attack?

During a spoofing attack, an individual or program impersonates another entity to deceive or gain unauthorized access to sensitive information or resources. This method often involves exploiting trust, as the attacker might masquerade as a legitimate user, device, or service to trick victims into revealing confidential information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.

In many cases, spoofing can take several forms, including email spoofing, where the attacker sends messages that appear to be from a trusted source, or IP spoofing, where the source address of a packet is manipulated to appear as if it is coming from a different device. By successfully impersonating a trusted identity, the attacker can navigate systems and secure data that they wouldn’t normally have access to. Understanding this concept is critical for recognizing the potential security risks within any given network environment.