If you’re a greying 40-something infosec consultant (like me) then that attractive, 25-ish tech-savvy lady with an eastern European accent might be after more than just your “suave”, beer-fuelled conversation: We would be well to remember that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Nice to see MI5 reminding us all that it still happens, particularly in light of events in Crimea: Or maybe it’s a bit more involved perhaps a long term relationship with a government minister leading to information being passed to a foreign power. The word honeypot has historically been used to represent a lure on the side of criminals pulling their. This network-attached system is used as a decoy to distract cyber attackers from their real targets. Stuff happens, after which their wallet / laptop / sensitive information or maybe their kidneys have been parted with. In cybersecurity, a honeypot is a security tool that can help computer systems defend against cyber attacks in unique ways. The start of social engineering, before we even called it that.Īn attractive man or woman hits on a traveller in a bar. Usually by the security services of the day. No prizes for guessing what…Īnyway, way before the dawn of computing, honeypots / honey traps were in widespread use.

I was thinking of honey in a jar + wasps, but turns out it has a much older, rather vulgar, slang connotation. It is spread on bread or used as a sweetening agent. We were running a security awareness training session a while back, and were a little surprised that one of the audience was offended by the term ‘honeypot’. 1 a sweet viscid substance made by bees from nectar and stored in their nests or hives as food. Someone on your network either IS trying to exploit your fake domain controller, or they aren’t. We love network honeypots, an awesomely cheap binary IDS.

Honey trap espionage definition