What is a honeypot attack?

What is a honeypot?

In cybersecurity, a honeypot is a security system that acts as a decoy and lures in hackers. Honeypots are created to act as a trap for hackers to either help companies or systems determine their own vulnerabilities and how they can fix them, or they can be used to distract hackers from gaining access to more important assets.

How do honeypots work?

For cybercriminals, a honeypot will look like a genuine network, server, or software system containing important data. The honeypot is used to trick hackers into thinking they have found a victim to steal data. Little do the hackers know that the information they are trying to steal is fake data. For example, an e-commerce site might set up a honeypot that appears to cyber criminals to be the site’s network. Criminals may proceed to hack the system, thinking they are getting credit card information, when in reality all of the credit card information in the honeypot is fake. Security and IT professionals can study how hackers infiltrate their honeypots to find weaknesses in their networks, how cybercriminals operate, where they originate from, and what motivates them.

Types of honeypot attacks

There are many different types of honeypot operations that IT professionals can use to prevent and protect against cyberattacks. Here are some common honeypot attack techniques.

Malware honeypots

Malware attacks are a common type of cyberattack. In a malware attack, malicious software is used to harm devices or networks or steal data from them. A malware honeypot duplicates an organization’s software and APIs to lure in malware attacks. Keep in mind that the legitimate software or API is not being attacked; it is simply a duplicate so that the organization is not truly affected. Creating the opportunity for malware attacks helps security specialists address weaknesses in their organization and helps them create the right anti-malware systems.

Email honeypots

Have you ever received a spam or phishing email? In an email honeypot, an email address is created for the purpose of catching these pesky spammers and bots. These email addresses aren’t tied to legitimate employees and are created to study spam or phishing attacks. When spam or phishing attempts are sent to the honeypot email, the security team can block the spammers and phishers, as well as their IP addresses, across the network.

Database honeypots

In a database honeypot, a decoy database is generated to attract bad actors who want to hack into the database. These honeypots can be used to distract hackers from getting into the real database. Security specialists can also study how hackers found and entered the decoy database in order to enhance the security of the real database.

Spider honeypots

Web crawlers, also known as bots or spiders, can be caught by spider honeypots. To catch these bots, web pages are generated that are only discoverable to automated crawlers. Finding these spiders is important as they can assist you in blocking and preventing ad-network crawlers or malicious bots.

Client honeypots

Client honeypots are more proactive than other honeypots. A client honeypot, also sometimes called a honeyclient, will actively scour for malicious servers that may attack clients. A client honeypot can help prevent attacks before they even happen.

How to make a honeypot

There are plenty of software solutions out there that can help you make a honeypot. If you are interested in making a honeypot, it’s best to work with an IT professional or security specialist who can help create an effective honeypot that suits the needs of your organization. Here are some tips for creating an effective honeypot:

• If you are creating a honeypot, remember to never use legitimate data. Always use fake data that looks legitimate to get hackers to bite.
• Never have a honeypot connected to your main network. Your real network should be isolated from your honeypot. Otherwise, hackers could use your honeypot to get onto your real network.
• Your honeypot should resemble a legitimate network. If your network is too easy to hack into, this is a dead giveaway to hackers that they are in a honeypot. Of course, collecting information and techniques from hackers is the main reason why one would set up a honeypot, so you’ll want to keep them in the honeypot for long enough to get this information.
• Create fake but believable network traffic on your honeypot. Hackers can tell they are falling into a trap if the network they are trying to access doesn’t have a lot of traffic.
• Only set up your honeypot on isolated virtual machines. This way, you can easily reboot and recreate your honeypot should it get hacked.
• A honeypot should not be used as a security solution. Honeypots are simply a tool to help secure your network. Make sure your network has other strong and legitimate security features in place.

Creating a honeypot is an effective tool that organizations can use to protect themselves from cybercriminal attacks and to learn more about them. Using a honeypot, along with other security features, will prove to be beneficial in securing your data and network.