How Do Attackers Benefit From Clickjacking?

You may not realize it, but clickjacking is a serious threat lurking in the shadows of the internet. It’s a deceptive technique used by malicious attackers to trick you into clicking on something you didn’t intend to, while concealing their true intentions. So, how do attackers benefit from clickjacking? By exploiting your trust and manipulating your clicks, they can gain unauthorized access to your personal information, bank accounts, or even install harmful malware on your device. This article delves into the dark world of clickjacking, shedding light on how these attackers reap their ill-gotten rewards.

Gaining Unauthorized Access to User Information

Stealing Personal Data

When attackers gain unauthorized access to user information, one of their primary objectives is to steal personal data. This could include sensitive information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers. With this stolen data, attackers can engage in various nefarious activities, including identity theft and fraud.

Obtaining Login Credentials

Another way attackers benefit from gaining unauthorized access is by obtaining login credentials. This can happen through various methods, such as phishing attacks or keylogging malware. By acquiring usernames and passwords, attackers can gain control over users’ accounts and access valuable information. They may even go a step further and manipulate the user’s actions, spreading malware or carrying out unauthorized transactions.

Capturing Payment Information

Attackers targeting e-commerce platforms or financial institutions often have their sights set on capturing payment information. This includes credit card numbers, bank account details, and other sensitive financial information. With this data, attackers can carry out fraudulent transactions or sell the stolen payment information to other criminals on the dark web.

Identity Theft and Fraud

Creating Fake Identities

Once attackers have access to user information, they can use it to create fake identities. This involves leveraging stolen personal data to fabricate new personas with false names, addresses, and other relevant details. These fake identities can then be used to carry out various types of fraud, such as applying for loans, opening credit card accounts, or filing fraudulent tax returns.

Committing Financial Fraud

Attackers who gain unauthorized access to user information often have a financial motive. By leveraging the stolen data, they can commit various types of financial fraud, such as making unauthorized purchases, draining bank accounts, or exploiting credit lines. This not only results in direct monetary gain for the attackers but also causes significant financial harm and stress to the victims.

Selling Stolen Data

Another way attackers benefit from identity theft and unauthorized access is by selling stolen data on the dark web. There is a thriving market for personal information, where criminals buy and sell these valuable assets. Attackers can profit from their illicit activities by selling user profiles, payment information, or other sensitive data to other malicious actors who can use it for further fraudulent activities.

Manipulating User Actions

Click Fraud

One way attackers manipulate user actions is through click fraud. This involves artificially inflating the number of clicks on ads or links to increase revenue for the attacker or to deplete the advertising budget of competitors. Attackers create automated scripts or botnets to generate countless clicks, leading to skewed analytics and wasted advertising spend.

Unauthorized Transactions

By gaining unauthorized access, attackers can manipulate user actions to carry out unauthorized transactions. This can involve making purchases using the victim’s payment information or transferring funds from their bank accounts without their knowledge or consent. These unauthorized transactions can result in significant financial losses for the victims and financial gains for the attackers.

Spreading Malware

Attackers often use unauthorized access to spread malware, such as viruses, ransomware, or spyware. By manipulating user actions, attackers can trick users into downloading malicious software or visiting compromised websites. Once infected, the attackers can gain control over the user’s device, potentially leading to further unauthorized access, data theft, or even holding the user’s files hostage until a ransom is paid.

Exploiting Trust and Authority

Building Fake Trust

Attackers are skilled at building fake trust to exploit users. This can involve impersonating trustworthy organizations, such as banks, tech companies, or government agencies, by creating convincing fake websites or sending phishing emails with professionally crafted content. Users, believing they are interacting with legitimate entities, may unknowingly provide sensitive information or take actions that benefit the attackers.

Impersonating Legitimate Websites

Attackers can go even further by impersonating legitimate websites themselves. They may create replicas of well-known e-commerce platforms, social media sites, or banking portals to trick users into entering their credentials or making transactions. These fraudulent websites can be difficult to distinguish from the real ones, especially for unsuspecting users who may not notice minor discrepancies in the URL or website design.

Gaining Social Engineering Advantage

By gaining unauthorized access to user information, attackers often gather valuable insights that they can use for social engineering. Armed with personal details and knowledge about the user’s preferences, habits, or affiliations, attackers can craft convincing messages to manipulate or deceive users. They may exploit emotional triggers or offer enticing incentives to persuade users into taking actions that ultimately benefit the attacker.

Generating Revenue through Ad Fraud

Creating Artificial Website Traffic

One way attackers generate revenue is through ad fraud. They create artificial website traffic by using botnets or automated software to visit specific websites repeatedly. This inflated traffic deceives advertisers into believing their ads are receiving genuine engagement, leading to greater advertising revenue for the attacker and potentially higher costs for advertisers.

Generating Illegitimate Ad Clicks

Attackers can also generate revenue through illegitimate ad clicks. By leveraging automated scripts or botnets, they deliberately click on ads to increase the advertiser’s costs or exhaust their advertising budget prematurely. This malicious activity not only wastes advertisers’ resources but also distorts the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Defrauding Advertisers

In addition to generating revenue through ad fraud, attackers can directly defraud advertisers. They may engage in ad stacking, where multiple ads are layered on top of one another, with only the top ad being visible to users. Advertisers end up paying for multiple ad impressions, even though only one visible ad is shown. This results in advertisers wasting their budget on ineffective ad placements, while the attacker benefits from the fraudulent activity.

Compromising User Privacy

Tracking User Activity

Attackers often compromise user privacy by tracking their online activity without their knowledge or consent. By gaining unauthorized access to user information, they can monitor which websites users visit, what products they search for, or even record their keystrokes. This invasive tracking allows attackers to collect valuable behavioral data that can be used for targeted attacks, ad personalization, or selling user profiles to interested parties.

Collecting Behavioral Data

Beyond tracking user activity, attackers may collect more comprehensive behavioral data. This can involve analyzing users’ browsing habits, their interactions on social media platforms, or even monitoring their communication channels. These detailed behavioral profiles provide attackers with insights into users’ preferences, demographics, and vulnerabilities, enabling them to craft more effective phishing attacks or personalized social engineering attempts.

Selling User Profiles

One of the primary benefits attackers gain from compromising user privacy is the ability to sell user profiles on the dark web. These comprehensive profiles, containing personal, behavioral, and even financial information, are valuable assets for malicious actors. They can be used to target users with highly personalized phishing attempts, sold to other criminals for further exploitation, or even used for blackmail or extortion.

Instigating Phishing Attacks

Pretending to Be Legitimate Organizations

Phishing attacks are a common tactic used by attackers to trick users into revealing sensitive information or performing certain actions. Attackers may send emails, create fake websites, or even make phone calls, pretending to be legitimate organizations, such as banks, social media platforms, or online retailers. Users, thinking they are interacting with trusted entities, may unwittingly provide their login credentials or other confidential information to the attackers.

Tricking Users into Providing Sensitive Information

The primary goal of phishing attacks is to deceive users into providing sensitive information willingly. Attackers may craft convincing email templates, claiming urgent account verification, password reset, or security update requirements. By luring users into clicking on malicious links or downloading malicious attachments, attackers gain access to sensitive data, which they can exploit for financial gain or further compromise the user’s security.

Sending Spam and Malicious Emails

Phishing attacks often involve the mass distribution of spam emails or malicious messages to a large number of users. These emails typically contain deceptive content, such as fake invoices, prize notifications, or urgent requests for help. By manipulating users’ curiosity, fear, or desire for rewards, attackers increase the chances of users falling victim to their schemes, ultimately benefiting from the sensitive information they obtain.

Disrupting Website Functionality

Causing Errors and Malfunctions

Attackers may exploit vulnerabilities in websites or web applications to disrupt their functionality intentionally. This can involve injecting malicious code, exploiting software bugs, or performing Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. By causing errors, crashes, or other malfunctions, attackers can disrupt online services, causing inconvenience, financial losses, or reputational damage to the targeted individuals or organizations.

Overloading Websites

Similar to causing errors and malfunctions, attackers can overload websites with excessive traffic to slow them down or render them completely unresponsive. This type of attack, known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), involves using botnets or other means to flood a website with an overwhelming amount of requests. By overwhelming the server’s capacity, attackers can effectively make the website inaccessible to genuine users, disrupting its normal operations and potentially causing significant financial losses for the targeted organization.

Denial of Service Attacks

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks aim to render a website or web service unavailable to legitimate users. Attackers achieve this by flooding the target’s network or server with an excessive amount of traffic or resource-consuming requests. By consuming all available resources, such as bandwidth or processing power, attackers can disrupt the targeted service, causing inconvenience, financial losses, or even reputational damage to individuals or organizations under attack.

Defaming Individuals or Organizations

Posting Fraudulent Content

Attackers benefit from defaming individuals or organizations by posting fraudulent content online. This can involve creating defamatory social media posts, fake reviews, or spreading false rumors and accusations. By tarnishing an individual’s or organization’s reputation, attackers can cause significant harm, affecting personal or professional relationships, financial stability, or overall public perception.

Damaging Reputations

Attacks aimed at damaging reputations often involve disseminating false or misleading information. Attackers may create convincing but fabricated stories, manipulate or edit existing content, or exploit vulnerabilities in online platforms to amplify the reach of their defamatory messages. By tarnishing the reputation of individuals or organizations, attackers can gain a competitive advantage, settle personal vendettas, or serve malicious agendas.

Spreading False Information

Another way attackers benefit from defaming individuals or organizations is by spreading false information that can go viral. This can involve creating fake news articles, videos, or memes designed to deceive and manipulate public opinion. The dissemination of false information can cause confusion, undermine trust, and even incite harm, ultimately benefiting the attackers by achieving their intended goals or causing chaos and disruption.

Targeted Attacks and Espionage

Gaining Access to Confidential Information

Attackers involved in targeted attacks or espionage often aim to gain access to highly confidential information. This can include trade secrets, research and development data, classified government documents, or any other sensitive information that could provide a competitive advantage or serve the attacker’s political agenda. By successfully infiltrating target systems or networks, attackers can extract valuable information that can be leveraged for financial gain, national security breaches, or other malicious purposes.

Spying on Targeted Individuals

Espionage often involves spying on specific individuals to gather intelligence, monitor activities, or gather compromising information. Attackers may employ various methods, including hacking into personal devices, intercepting communications, or deploying advanced surveillance techniques. By compromising the privacy of targeted individuals, attackers can gain valuable insight, dictate behaviors, or even blackmail individuals to further their agenda or gain an advantage over their adversaries.

Obtaining Secrets and Trade Secrets

One of the primary motivations for targeted attacks and espionage is to obtain secrets and trade secrets. By gaining unauthorized access to targeted systems or networks, attackers can extract valuable information that can be monetized, sold to competitors, or used to undermine the target’s competitive advantage. The theft of trade secrets can have severe financial repercussions for the targeted organizations, and the attackers can benefit significantly by exploiting the stolen information for personal gain or passing it on to interested parties.