Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather information.

[3] Eavesdropping vectors include telephone lines, cellular networks, email, and other methods of private instant messaging.

[5] This type of network attack is generally one of the most effective as a lack of encryption services are used and when the connection between the two endpoints are weak and not secure.

The need for security measures at different levels, including software encryption, hardware protection (e.g., trusted platform modules), and even the physical layer using wave-front engineering is as crucial than ever.

[8] Researchers have expressed the importance of addressing the privacy concerns from eavesdropping attacks because they impact the rights of users and the ability to have confidence in the devices as well as the entire Internet.