Submission + - Real and fictional MITM attacks
whitesea writes: I recently read "The Loves Of Alonzo Fitz Clarence And Rosannah Ethelton", because a Slashdot reader claimed it described a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack. I discovered that the commenter made a common mistake: mixed up an impersonation and a MITM attack.
I started thinking, "What MITM attacks do I know in fiction or in history?" It turns out that most attacks I could think of were actually impersonation attacks, when Alice thought she was talking to Bob, but in reality, she was talking to Ike. In history, probably the Mary Queen of Scots is the best example, where Elisabeth I was not only reading letters going in both directions, but also made at least one alteration. In literature, I can only think of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", by the famous Russian poet Pushkin.
There, when the queen sent good news to the king about the birth of a wonderful heir, her envious sisters kidnapped the original messenger and replaced him with another one, who brought the king fake, very upsetting, news. When the king decided to postpone his decision until coming back home, the evil women got the messenger drunk and replaced a reasonable message from the king by one that required execution of his wife and a child. (See details here: http://www.englishforkids.ru/Pushkin2.shtml).
Do you know any other cases of full-fledged MITM attacks, either in fiction or history?
If your examples are not in English, please try to find and post a translation.
I wonder if we can get even 10 examples, that are not just simple impersonation?
I started thinking, "What MITM attacks do I know in fiction or in history?" It turns out that most attacks I could think of were actually impersonation attacks, when Alice thought she was talking to Bob, but in reality, she was talking to Ike. In history, probably the Mary Queen of Scots is the best example, where Elisabeth I was not only reading letters going in both directions, but also made at least one alteration. In literature, I can only think of "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", by the famous Russian poet Pushkin.
There, when the queen sent good news to the king about the birth of a wonderful heir, her envious sisters kidnapped the original messenger and replaced him with another one, who brought the king fake, very upsetting, news. When the king decided to postpone his decision until coming back home, the evil women got the messenger drunk and replaced a reasonable message from the king by one that required execution of his wife and a child. (See details here: http://www.englishforkids.ru/Pushkin2.shtml).
Do you know any other cases of full-fledged MITM attacks, either in fiction or history?
If your examples are not in English, please try to find and post a translation.
I wonder if we can get even 10 examples, that are not just simple impersonation?
