Publication date: January 06, 2026

At the turn of the 21st century, technologies were gaining significant importance. Information technology was the fastest-growing influence on the lives of ordinary people, as more and more services became digitized, automated, and transferred to cyberspace. These included, for example, correspondence and electronic communication, such as email, developed from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. Banking, financial services, were also introduced electronically in the 1970s and 1980s, as were the sharing of works of art and the storage of various data in digital form. These services are linked to key areas of our lives, such as economics, privacy, and security. These same areas also attract criminals of various kinds, many of them members of organized crime groups or terrorist and sabotage groups, but not exclusively. Their activities are referred to, primarily colloquially, as cybercrime. However, this term presents significant challenges in defining its meaning, as it evolves with technological advancements. However, in criminal law, the requirement of legal certainty must be met, linked to the principle that there is no crime without law. For this reason, various attempts are being made to develop such a definition.

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Along with the development of technology, which gives us more and more opportunities, the risk of cyber-attacks on our personal data is also growing. Hackers are using more and more sophisticated methods of compromising security to achieve their goal. One of the forms of cybercrime is spoofing, i.e. a group of attacks on ICT systems consisting in impersonating another element of the IT system, the effect of which is achieved by placing prepared data packets on the network or incorrect use of protocols.

Spoofing definition

The term “spoof” dates back over a century and refers to any form of trickery. However, today it is mostly used when talking about cybercrime. Spoofing is the act of disguising a communication from an unknown source as being from a known, trusted source, which can apply to emails, phone calls, and websites, or can be more technical, such as a computer spoofing an IP address, Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), or Domain Name System (DNS) server. It can be used to gain access to a target’s personal information, spread malware through infected links or attachments, bypass network access controls, or redistribute traffic to conduct a denial-of-service attack. Also it is a good way to gains access to someone’s device in order to execute a larger cyber-attack. Successful attacks can lead to infected computer systems and networks, data breaches, and loss of revenue – all liable to affect the organization’s public reputation. In addition, spoofing that leads to the rerouting of internet traffic can overwhelm networks or lead customers to malicious sites aimed at stealing information or distributing malware.

How spoofing works?

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