Cybersecurity Glossary
Man in the Middle
An attacker positioned between you and the service you are using, reading or altering what passes.
What Man in the Middle means
The classic case is an untrusted wireless network where the attacker controls the connection and can watch unencrypted traffic or present a fake certificate. Modern encrypted connections make passive eavesdropping much harder, which is why current attacks focus on tricking the user into accepting a warning or visiting a lookalike address.
Why Man in the Middle matters for small businesses and nonprofits
Staff working from cafés, airports and hotels are exposed regularly. The practical risk is less about interception and more about the habit of clicking through certificate warnings, which trains people to ignore the one alert that matters.
What to do about Man in the Middle
- Make sure every service you use is encrypted end to end and never accept certificate warnings
- Provide a company virtual private network for untrusted networks
- Prefer a phone hotspot over open public wireless
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