Man/Machine in the Middle
If you've got encryption on, that certainly doesn't mean your safe from all attacks, the most notable being a man in the middle or, more recently named, machine in the middle attack. You may have heard this before, and you'll hear it plenty more as it is the easiest and most common network attack.
The general idea is that if Computer A tries to communicate with Computer C, but their conversation transits over Computer B, B is able to read and even alter the messages being sent. This can allow Computer B to impersonate both people to each other and have them each receive a totally incorrect message while never knowing that they are being listened in on. This was not a huge problem back in the '70s on ARPANET, but now, when there are dozens of hops between your computer and whatever website you visit, any of those could be intercepting your traffic (and mostly likely multiple are).
Read this: https://www.networxsecurity.org/members-area/glossary/m/mitma.html
Questions to think about:
- Of CIA, what were the pillars that can be attacked if an adversary is able to do a machine in the middle?
- In the Computer A,B and C scenario, what are the human names which match up to them?
- This one requires a google, but who is Mallory, and what makes her different from Eve?
- How does your browser protect you from MITM attacks? This will require a google.