The Honey Pot

The Honey pot term comes from espionage, a technique used by Mata Hair-style spies. They set ‘honey traps’ as a means of stealing secrets. When enemy spies fall victim to honey traps, they are force to reveal everything they know.

Similarly, cyber honeypots function as a trap for hackers in terms of computer security. Using a sacrificial computer system attracts cyber-attacks, much like a ruse. Cybercriminals can use it to get information about the methods by which they operate or to distract their attention from other targets. It mimics a target for hackers and uses their instruction attempts to gather information.

A honeypot’s working

 

Cyber criminals consider honeypots a legitimate target because they look like legitimate computer systems. For instance, a honeypot could mimic a company’s billing system, which is frequently target by attackers looking to steal credit card information.

It is possible to track hackers once they have gained access, as well as assess their behavior to understand how to improve the security of the real network. Through the deliberate introduction of security vulnerabilities, a honeypot makes itself attractive to attackers. Port scans or weak passwords may be detect in honeypots.

As oppose to the more secure live network, vulnerable ports may be left open in a honeypot environment in order to attract attackers. Unlike firewalls and anti-viruses, Honey pots aren’t put in place to fix specific problems.

You can use it as an information tool to identify existing business threats and detect the emergence of new ones. Security efforts can be prioritize and focus base on the intelligence from a honeypot.

The Honey Pot types and uses

 

 

You can use different types of honeypots to detect different types of threats. Various honeypot definitions are based on the type of threat that is being addressed. Each of them should be incorporated into a comprehensive and effective cybersecurity strategy.

Spam traps or email traps hide fake email addresses in a location only accessible by automated address harvesters. Since the address isn’t use for anything else other than spam trapping, any mail coming to it is guarantee to be spam. Messages with the same content as those in the spam trap can be automatically block, and the source IP of the sender can be add to a deny list.

The honey pot To spot attacks exploiting insecure systems or using SQL injection, SQL services exploitation, or privilege abuse, a fake database can be set up to monitor software vulnerabilities.

In a malware honeypot, software apps and APIs are clone to invite malicious attacks. Using the characteristics of the malware, anti-malware software or API vulnerabilities can be fix.

A spider honeypot traps web crawlers (‘spiders’) by creating links and pages that are only accessible to crawlers. You can block ad-network crawlers as well as malicious bots by detecting crawlers.

Observing the traffic entering a honeypot system can provide you with the following information:

 

• Cybercriminals’ sources of inspiration
• as well as their level of threat
• and the tactics they employ
• as well as the data they are interest in
• to see if your security measures are effective at stopping cyberattacks.

 

Another honeypot definition examines whether a honeypot has high or low interaction. Honeypots with low interaction use fewer resources and collect basic information about the level and type of threat and where it originated. The setup is simple and quick, usually involving just a few basic simulations of TCP and IP protocols and network services. Honeypots aren’t designed to hold the attacker’s attention for very long, and you won’t gain detailed insight into their habits or complex threats.

As opposed to low-interaction honeypots, high-interaction honeypots aim to get hackers to spend as much time inside the honeypot as possible, providing information about their intentions, targets, and any vulnerabilities they are exploiting.  You can think of it as a honeypot with added ‘glue’ – databases, systems, and processes that can snare an attacker for longer. In this way, researchers can see where attackers look in the system to find sensitive information. It can also track what tools they use to escalate privileges and what exploits they use to compromise a system.

Honey Pot With High Interaction

The Honey pot with high interaction levels consume a lot of resources. Setting them up and monitoring them takes more time and effort. Honeypots can also pose a risk; if a ‘Honeywell isn’t install, a determine and cunning hacker may be able to use one to attack other internet hosts or to send spam.

There is a place for both types of honeypots in honeypot cybersecurity. With a blend of both, you can refine the basic information on threat types that comes from the low-interaction honeypots by adding information on intentions, communications, and exploits from the high-interaction honeypots.

Cyber honeypots can be use to create a threat intelligence framework that can help businesses ensure that their spending on cybersecurity is direct at the right points and can identify where their security weaknesses are.

Honeypots are beneficial

 

 

It is possible to expose vulnerabilities in major systems using honeypots. Using a honeypot, for example, we can see the high level of threat that IoT devices pose. A honeypot can also offer suggestions for improving security.

There are several advantages to using a honeypot rather than trying to spot intrusions in the real system. Any activity logged by a honeypot will be likely to be a probe or intrusion attempt. By definition, a honeypot shouldn’t receive legitimate traffic.

As a result, it is much easier to spot patterns, such as the use of similar IP addresses (or IP addresses coming from the same country) to perform network sweeps. While monitoring the high levels of legitimate traffic on your core network, it is easy to overlook such telltale signs of an attack. Among the benefits of honeypot security is the fact that you might be the only one who sees these malicious IP addresses, making it easier to identify the attacker.

They are also resource-efficient because they handle very little traffic. An old computer you don’t use anymore can be used to set up a honeypot. They don’t require a lot of hardware. It’s also possible to purchase ready-made honeypots from online repositories, which decreases the amount of effort required to set up a honeypot.

Positive Rate for Honeypots is low

The false-positive rate for honeypots is low. As compare to traditional intrusion detection systems (IDS), which can generate a lot of false alarms. Again, that helps prioritize efforts while keeping the resource demand from a honeypot low. Honeypots can be use to tune and improve other cybersecurity systems by combining data collect by honeypots with logs from other systems and firewalls. By doing so, IDSs can produce fewer false positives, so they can be use to tune other cybersecurity systems.

It is possible to obtain reliable information about threat evolution through honeypots. Their information includes attack vectors, exploits, and malware – or, in the case of email traps, spammers, and phishing attacks. The hacker community continuously refines its intrusion techniques;

a cyber the honey pot helps pinpoint new intrusions and threats.

It also helps eliminate blind spots. Technical security staff can also use honeypots as training tools. In a honeypot, attackers are demonstrate how they work and different kinds of threats are examine. The security team won’t be distract by actual traffic on the network – they can concentrate on identifying the threat.

Detecting internal threats can also be done with honeypots. Most organizations spend their time trying to prevent outsiders and intruders from getting inside. A firewall that only defends the perimeter gives a hacker carte blanche once they get past it. A firewall cannot protect against a thief who is about to leave an employer and wants to steal files. You can also find information about internal threats and vulnerabilities, such as permissions that allow insiders to exploit the system.

The honey pot can be dangerous

 

The honeypot will help chart the threat environment, but it will only see the activity directed at it – not everything that’s taking place. It is imperative to stay on top of IT security news, not simply rely on honeypots to let you know about threats.

The right honeypot will deceive attackers into believing that they have gained access to the real system. It will have the same login warning messages, data fields, even the same look and feel like your real systems. If an attacker manages to identify it as a honeypot, however, Once they have identified your honeypot, an attacker can launch a spoof attack to divert attention from a real exploit aimed at production systems. There is also the possibility that a malicious attacker would be use to feed your honeypot.

Even worse, a clever attacker may be able to take advantage of a honeypot to gain access to your systems. Honeypots cannot replace adequate security controls like firewalls and intrusion detection systems. To prevent further intrusions into honeypots, make sure they are properly s