Which term describes the general concept of intercepting communication between two parties to monitor or alter data?

Which term describes the general concept of intercepting communication between two parties to monitor or alter data?

• A. Man-in-the-middle
• B. Denial of service
• C. Phishing
• D. Sniffing

Answer: (A)

Intercepting communication between two parties to monitor or alter data describes a man-in-the-middle scenario. In this situation, the attacker inserts themselves between the communicating parties, so all messages pass through them. That position lets the attacker eavesdrop on sensitive information, modify messages, or inject new content while the parties believe they are talking directly to each other. This is why strong authentication and encryption matter: with proper certificate validation and encrypted channels, the parties can detect tampering and protect confidentiality and integrity. By contrast, sniffing is typically a passive capture of traffic without the attacker sitting in the middle to alter it, a denial-of-service attack targets availability, and phishing is about deceiving people to obtain credentials rather than intercepting data in transit. So the term that best fits intercepting and potentially altering data in transit is the man-in-the-middle.

Intercepting communication between two parties to monitor or alter data describes a man-in-the-middle scenario. In this situation, the attacker inserts themselves between the communicating parties, so all messages pass through them. That position lets the attacker eavesdrop on sensitive information, modify messages, or inject new content while the parties believe they are talking directly to each other. This is why strong authentication and encryption matter: with proper certificate validation and encrypted channels, the parties can detect tampering and protect confidentiality and integrity. By contrast, sniffing is typically a passive capture of traffic without the attacker sitting in the middle to alter it, a denial-of-service attack targets availability, and phishing is about deceiving people to obtain credentials rather than intercepting data in transit. So the term that best fits intercepting and potentially altering data in transit is the man-in-the-middle.