Final answer:
Attackers employ various methods to access accounts unlawly, including stealing cookies, phishing, and identity theft, often causing significant financial and privacy harm.
Step-by-step explanation:
An attacker can gain unauthorized access to a target's account using methods such as stealing cookies, phishing, and creating accounts with the same or a similar name as the target or their acquaintances. These tactics exploit both technological vulnerabilities and human psychology to breach security.Identity theft plays a significant role in these attacks, where personal identification and account information are used without permission, leading to financial harm and privacy invasion. Attackers often use this stolen information for fraudulent purchases or to compromise further personal data.The different methods an attacker can use to gain unauthorized access to a target's account are:Stealing cookies:
Hackers can intercept and steal the cookies that are used to authenticate a user's session, allowing them to log into the target's account without needing their password.Phishing: Hackers can create fake websites or emails that mimic legitimate ones in order to trick the target intorevealing their login credentials.Creating an account with the same name as the target: Hackers can create an account with the exact same username as the target, allowing them to access the account by using a password recovery process.Creating an account with the name of a supposed acquaintance of the target: Hackers can create an account with the name of someone the target knows, and then try to impersonate that person to gain the target's trust and access their account.To protect against these methods, it is important to be cautious when sharing personal information online, to use strong and unique passwords, and to enable two-factor authentication whenever possible.