{"id":28397,"date":"2025-04-16T10:56:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T18:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=28397"},"modified":"2025-04-08T10:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T18:57:13","slug":"what-is-a-honeypot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/what-is-a-honeypot\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Honeypot?\u00a0 How Cybersecurity Experts are Fighting Back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to luring people to certain things, nothing works quite like a \u201choneypot.\u201d  For Winnie-the-Pooh, his honey pot was a literal honeypot, for cybercriminals, a honeypot is a much more complex, but equally alluring tactic.  Here we\u2019ll go over what exactly a honeypot is (spoilers, it\u2019s not a literal jar of honey), what a honeypot might look like when it comes to catching cybercriminals, and how exactly they can work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a Honeypot?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Broadly, a honeypot is something enticing used to lure specific people away from something, or into some type of trap or scheme.  When it comes to cybersecurity, it\u2019s specifically used as a trap or decoy to either keep cybercriminals away from real data or to gain insight into hacker activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While that sounds simple enough, there are many complexities when it comes to setting up an effective honeypot, as well as a few different ways in which honeypots can be used to help boost cybersecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Honeypots Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In cybersecurity, honeypots are fake assets, such as specific application layers or even full-scale production systems (systems that interface with customers), that look enticing to hackers attempting to illegally gather valuable data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The honeypot will contain some form of security vulnerability that is intentionally put in place.\u00a0 One of the tricks is to make the vulnerability appear real so as not to raise suspicion from any would-be hacker, but also have it be easy enough to find to grab a hacker’s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of this could be a business running a honeypot server that looks completely real but is actually made up of fake traffic and user data.  They will then implement some sort of vulnerability into this fake system \u2014 although that part is unknown to the hacker \u2014 so that the hackers spend their time and resources trying to dig into what ultimately is fake information.  Alternatively, some honeypots draw hackers in so that security teams can then observe how hackers interact with existing security systems, and also to see what information hackers are most interested in getting into.  Again, these systems will not actually use real information as bait, instead the honeypot relies on seemingly-real, but fictitious information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, honeypots can be useful both in leading hackers away from actual information as well as revealing their methods and intentions, so that security teams can better understand future attacks and build defensive systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Are Honeypots Used?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As touched on above, honeypots typically serve one of two goals.  These two major ways in which honeypots are used are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Research Honeypots.\u00a0 <\/strong>Research honeypots aim to specifically analyze hacker activity and behavior so that companies can better develop security systems<\/strong> to keep cybercriminals away.\u00a0 These research honeypots can also be used to identify specific hackers by putting unique information in certain honeypots that can expose specific hackers.\u00a0 An example of a research honeypot would be the use of a honeypot that is set up with fake traffic, so that if any real traffic is detected, security teams are alerted to a possible compromise, and can then track the activity of the suspicious user.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Production Honeypots.\u00a0 <\/strong>While research honeypots are used to track hackers and use that information to build better security systems, production honeypots are used to draw hackers away from real information<\/strong>.\u00a0 These aim to not only keep hackers away from actual assets, but also serve to waste the time and resources of would-be hackers.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Different Levels of Complexity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    As with any sort of trap or decoy, there can be different levels of complexity.\u00a0 When it comes to honeypots, the same holds true, as there are a variety of levels at which honeypots can be deployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n