Cybersecurity Breach Simulation

• Shubham Banwal

• June 2025

Cybersecurity Breach Simulation Platform for IoT Systems (MITM Attack & Encryption Visualization)

Problem:

IoT systems are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks, particularly due to weak or absent encryption. However, there is limited visibility into how attacks occur in real time, making it difficult to understand and mitigate security risks.

Approach:

Designed and built an interactive simulation platform to model real-world cyberattacks on IoT systems, enabling users to visualize data interception and evaluate the impact of encryption in real time.

System Design:

• Simulated IoT device communicating with backend server
• Attacker module positioned as a Man-in-the-Middle (MITM)
• Flask-based backend handling APIs and data flow
• AES encryption module for secure communication
• Frontend interface with real-time logs and control toggles
• Multi-threaded architecture for concurrent attack simulation

Key Contributions:

• Developed a web-based simulation platform (Flask + JS) to demonstrate IoT communication and vulnerabilities
• Implemented a MITM attack module to intercept and display transmitted data in real time
• Integrated AES encryption to demonstrate secure vs insecure communication scenarios
• Built interactive UI with user-controlled toggles (attacker on/off, encryption on/off)
• Designed real-time logging system to visualize both server-side and attacker-side data flows
• Enabled comparative simulation of multiple security scenarios (encrypted vs unencrypted communication)

Constraints & Tradeoffs:

• Simulating realistic attack behavior within a controlled environment
• Balancing system performance with real-time visualization
• Simplifying complex security concepts while maintaining technical accuracy
• Ensuring usability without overwhelming the interface