First off, what are honeypots? As the name states, it is something sweet that attracts an attacker with a fake but seemingly juicy server that they could potentially exploit. However, once the attacker touches the honeypot software in any way, the defender is immediately alerted.
Honeypots work as digital decoys, enticing cyber attackers to engage with them. They mimic valuable or vulnerable assets to lure in malicious actors, diverting them from real targets.
Honeypots create an obvious and real challenge for a potential attacker. How can they seek to infiltrate a system when they can’t even get reconnaissance on their targets?
The Dataforge Honeypot
Our Honeypot story began as Dataforge was refining our internal security systems. We decided to request a penetration test of our internal systems. It occurred to us, why don’t we just deploy an internal honeypot system in order to help detect any scans? This seemed too simple! So we designed and developed an internal honeypot system and set the trap.
The penetration tester we worked with is fully certified and ex-military/law enforcement – a highly skilled vendor. In the first few hours after they initiated a scan of the network, we were alerted. As soon as they simply touched the honeypot we were aware of them right away.
An Inexpensive Detection System
With all of our layers of security, the Dataforge honeypot has been the quickest and least expensive way to detect the beginning of an attack. It acts as an early warning system. It provides an excellent additional layer of defence that we would never go without. It has thus far detected numerous penetration tests at both Dataforge and at our customers.
We continued the development of our honeypot software and, once it was ready, we deployed it to all our customers free of charge. It requires very little in terms of resources, it’s highly effective and is a great complement to a Managed Threat Response (MTR) system.
MTR provides 24/7 threat hunting, detection and response capabilities delivered by our expert team as a fully managed service.
Are you intrigued? Get in touch with Dataforge to learn more about setting up a Honeypot and implementing MTR. We are happy to answer any questions you have about your digital security.
