Salami Attacks

An attack on a computer network which involves the intruder siphoning off small amounts of money from a file and placing them in another file that he or she can access; for example, a file that holds their bank account details. A typical salami attack would add a small amount to a debit that the account holder would not check, such as a debit that represented a service charge. This small increase in debit (often a few pence or a few cents) would then be credited to the perpetrator's bank account. An unsophisticated banking system, which just checked that debits and credits matched, would be unable to detect this type of fraud. The name ‘salami attack’ comes from the fact that salami is cut into very thin slices. It is also known as salami shaving.