Potential Consequences: Even though passive attacks don't directly alter data, the consequences of the resulting data breach can be significant:
Loss of Sensitive Information: Theft of confidential data such as customer PII (Personally Identifiable Information), financial records, intellectual property, trade secrets, or employee data.
Financial Loss: Costs associated with incident response, forensic investigation, legal fees, regulatory fines (e.g., GDPR), potential lawsuits from affected individuals, credit monitoring services for victims, and loss of competitive advantage if trade secrets are stolen.
Reputational Damage: Erosion of customer trust, negative media coverage, and damage to the organization's brand and public image.
Regulatory Penalties: Failure to protect data can lead to substantial fines under various data protection laws.
Foundation for Future Attacks: Information gathered passively (e.g., credentials, network topology) can be used to plan and execute more damaging active attacks later.
Espionage: State-sponsored or corporate espionage aims to gather intelligence passively.

Risk Mitigation:
Encryption: Encrypting sensitive data both at rest and, crucially for passive attacks, in transit (using protocols like TLS/SSL, VPNs). This makes intercepted data unusable without the key.
Network Segmentation and Monitoring: Segmenting networks limits the scope of potential eavesdropping. Monitoring network traffic for unusual patterns or data exfiltration attempts (even if encrypted) can help detection.
Strong Access Controls: Limiting access to sensitive data reduces the potential impact if an attacker gains internal network access.
Secure Network Protocols: Avoid using unencrypted protocols (like plain HTTP, FTP, Telnet). Use secure alternatives (HTTPS, SFTP, SSH).
Endpoint Security: Protecting devices where data might be accessed or stored.
Security Awareness Training: Educating users about the risks of unsecured networks (e.g., public Wi-Fi) and phishing attempts that might precede passive monitoring.
Regular Security Audits: Proactively searching for vulnerabilities or signs of compromise.

Unit 1 - Information Security Fundamentals Quiz