A man-on-the-side attack is a form of active attack in computer security similar to a man-in-the-middle attack. Instead of completely controlling a network node as in a man-in-the-middle attack, the attacker only has regular access to the communication channel, which allows him to read the traffic and insert new messages, but not to modify or delete messages sent by other participants. The attacker relies on a timing advantage to make sure that the response he sends to the request of a victim arrives before the legitimate response. In real-world attacks, the response packet sent by the attacker can be used to place malware on the victim's computer. The need for a timing advantage makes the attack difficult to execute, as it requires a privileged position in the network, for example on the internet backbone. Potentially, this class of attack may be performed within a local network (assuming a privileged position), research has shown that it has been successful within critical infrastructure. The 2013 global surveillance revelations revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) widely uses a man-on-the-side attack to infect targets with malware through its QUANTUM program. GitHub suffered such an attack in 2015. The Russian Threat Group might have suffered a similar attack in 2019. Definition Man-on-the-side has become a more familiarized term after Edward Snowden leaked information about the NSA's quantum insert project. Man-on-the-side attack involves a cyber-attacker in a conversation between two people or two parties who are communicating online. The cyber-attacker is able to intercept and inject messages into the communication between the two parties. However, the cyber-attacker is not able to remove any signals on communication channels. Man-on-the-side attack can be applied to websites while retrieving online file downloads. The cyber-attacker is able to receive signals and perform the attack through a satellite. As long as they have a satellite dish in the place they're residing in, they will be able to read transmissions and receive signals. Satellites tend to have high latency, which gives the cyber attacker enough time to send their injected response to the victim before the actual response from one party reaches the other through the satellite link. Therefore, this is the reason why an attacker relies on timing advantage. The main difference between man-in-the-middle attack and man-on-the-side-attack is that man-in-the-middle attackers are able to intercept and block messages and signals from transmitting, whilst man-on-the-side attackers are able to intercept