Final answer:
The best defense against MITM attacks for an internal payroll website using mutual authentication is to implement TLS and require the client to use its own certificate during the handshake.Option B is the correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The company's chief cybersecurity architect is interested in preventing MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attacks on an internal payroll website through the use of mutual authentication. To achieve this, the best approach would be Option B: Implement TLS and require the client to use its own certificate during handshake.
This method involves the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, which provides a secure communication channel between the client and the server. During the TLS handshake, both the server and the client authenticate each other by presenting their respective certificates, which are verified by both parties. This process ensures that both entities are indeed who they claim to be, hence mitigating the risk of MITM attacks as a third party would not possess the necessary client certificate to authenticate successfully.
Implementing mutual authentication through TLS is a robust strategy to thwart MITM attacks on the internal payroll website. This approach enhances security by requiring both the server and client to present and validate certificates during the TLS handshake.