What Is a Honeypot in Cybersecurity? How does it protect against cyber-attacks?

Cybersecurity is all about keeping your computer safe from hackers who want to steal your information or mess things up.  You probably have some ways to stop hackers already, but did you know you can also set up a honeypot to make it even harder for them to get in?

This term might sound strange or even sweet, but it’s a powerful tool that helps protect computer systems from cyber-attacks.

This guide will show you how honeypots work and how to use them. We’ll also talk about why they’re good for keeping your computer safe from attacks and spam. Let’s start!

What is a honeypot?

A honeypot is like a digital trap set up by cybersecurity experts to catch cyber attackers. It looks just like a regular computer system or network, but it’s actually fake and designed to attract hackers.

When attackers try to break into the honeypot, it doesn’t have any real data to steal or damage. Instead, it records everything the hackers do. This helps cybersecurity teams understand how attackers work and what they’re after, so they can better protect real computer systems.

Imagine you have a valuable treasure, like a golden nugget. You want to keep it safe from thieves, so you put it in a special box with a lock. But you don’t just leave that box out in the open where anyone can see it. Instead, you put it in a hidden spot and watch to see if any thieves try to find it.

A honeypot is like that special box. It’s a trap for cyber thieves. It looks like a valuable target, but it’s a fake. Cybersecurity experts set up honeypots to trick hackers into thinking they’ve found something valuable, like a computer system or a network. Then, they watch to see what the hackers do next.

How Do Honeypots Work?

Honeypots are like traps that trick attackers into showing how they hack. They can also tell us how bad an attack is, help us figure out the dangers, and find where the attacks are coming from.

There are several different honeypots, each with its specific uses:

• Production Honeypots: Production honeypots are set up on real networks to learn about attackers and how they work. They’re put in places where a company wants to catch attacks as they’re going on.
• Research Honeypots: Research honeypots are used to study how cybercriminals act and learn about new cyberattack tricks. They’re not put in live networks like production honeypots but are instead used to watch and study cybercriminals from a safe distance.
• Proxy Honeypots: A proxy honeypot is like a middleman that takes traffic away from a real system and puts it into a fake one. The fake system then looks at the traffic to see if there are any signs of attacks. Proxy honeypots are often used to catch attacks on websites.
• Database Honeypots: A database honeypot is a tool that keeps an eye on what’s happening in a database. It can also spot cyberattacks, like when someone tries to mess with a database using an SQL injection attack.
• Virtual Honeypots: Virtual honeypots are great for keeping an eye on virtual systems. They’re also good for watching how attackers act and finding new ways they might try to break into systems.
• SC Trap Honeypots: SC Trap Honeypots gather details about cyberattacks targeting software vulnerabilities. They can also identify attacks that use shellcode, which is code that runs after a software flaw is exploited.
• Static Honeypots: Static honeypots are straightforward to install and manage, but they don’t provide extensive cybersecurity protection capabilities.
• Dynamic Honeypots: Dynamic Honeypots are decoy systems that change their look and behaviour to study cyber-attacks. They’re like chameleons, constantly adapting to catch bad guys. They help learn how hackers work, making the internet safer!
• Honeynets: A Honeynet is a network designed to be attacked. It’s like a trap for hackers. By watching how hackers try to break in, we can learn about new threats and make the internet safer.

What are the different types of honeypots?

There are different types of honeypots that can be used to deal with different threats. Here are some of the most common types and how they work in practice:

• Email honeypots: Email honeypots work by using a fake email address that can only be found through shady methods like an automated address harvester. Legitimate users won’t stumble upon this address. Any emails sent to it are labeled as spam, and the senders are blocked from the network. This helps internet providers fight email spam.
• Data honeypots: Many companies make fake databases with bogus content to find and fix security problems. Data honeypots can watch for things like SQL injections and other ways attackers might try to sneak into the fake database. They can also track how the fake data is taken and used.
• Malware honeypots: A malware honeypot is a tool that mimics a software app or a piece of code. It’s made to attract malware so that the person who set up the honeypot can study the attack in a safe place. This information helps them build better defenses against malware.
• Spider honeypots: Web crawlers, also known as “spiders,” are the focus of this type of honeypot. A spider honeypot makes web pages and links that only web crawlers or bots can access. This helps organizations learn about how these bots work and what issues they might cause.
• Client honeypots: Conventional honeypots are like servers that just wait for an attack. But client honeypots, also called computer honeypots, are more active. They pretend to be client devices and go looking for servers that might try to attack. Then they connect with the server and see if there’s an attack happening.

Benefits and Risks of Honeypots

Honeypots are often considered an important part of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, as their main objective is to expose vulnerabilities in existing systems and distract attackers from legitimate targets.

Here are some of the benefits that may come with using honeypots:

1. It Can Expose Vulnerabilities in Systems: Honeypots are made to find out if there are any problems with an organization’s systems. They can also show how security can be made better.
2. Honeypots Can Make It Easier to Spot Intrusions: Honeypots should not get any real traffic. So, if they do, it’s probably someone trying to sneak in. This can help security teams find patterns, like where attacks are coming from.
3. Honeypots Stop Other Attacks: If attackers spend time trying to hack into honeypots, they won’t have as much time to attack real systems. This means the target organization and others are less likely to get hurt.
4. Honeypots Are Often Resource-Light: Honeypots usually don’t need a lot of computer power. You can even use old computers that aren’t being used anymore. And you can find ready-made honeypots online, which means you don’t have to do much work to set one up.
5. Honeypots Can Have Low False-Positive Rates: Traditional intrusion detection systems can sometimes give a lot of false alarms, but honeypots usually don’t. This means that organizations can focus on the real problems and not waste time on things that aren’t really attacks.
6. Honeypots May Help Refine and Improve Other Cybersecurity Systems: By putting together data from honeypots and other logs from systems and firewalls, you can set up intrusion detection systems to give more accurate alerts and have fewer false alarms.

Disadvantages of Honeypots

While honeypots can be useful, they have some downsides, including:

1. Honeypots Can Only See Activity Directed at Them: Honeypots only work if they get a threat actor to attack them. If no one attacks them, you won’t find out if there’s a threat or not. But attackers are getting smarter and might realize they’re dealing with a honeypot before they do anything else. This means that organizations need to use other ways to find out if they’re being attacked as well as using honeypots.
2. Honeypots Can Be Identified by Attackers: Even if a honeypot is set up well and tricks an attacker into thinking it’s a real system, if the attacker figures out it’s a honeypot, they could use that information to help them attack real systems.
3. Honeypots Can Be Used to Gain Access to Real Systems: A skilled attacker might use a honeypot to get into real systems, using it to sneak into those systems. While a honeywall might help a little by blocking attacks on the honeypot from getting to real systems, you still need other security measures like firewalls and other ways to spot attacks.
4. Honeypots Can’t Replace Proper Cybersecurity: Honeypots can help organizations know what problems to focus on first, but they can’t do the whole job of keeping a network safe.

Conclusion

A honeypot is a special trick used in cybersecurity to catch hackers. It pretends to be a vulnerable part of a computer system to attract these bad guys. This way, we can learn more about them and stop them from doing harm. There are different types of honeypots, each used for different reasons. They aren’t the only way to stay safe online, but they’re a very helpful tool.

At Appin Technology Lab, we offer comprehensive cybersecurity training courses that cover topics like honeypots and how to use them effectively. Our courses are designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to protect yourself and your organization from cyber threats.