Whether you are an experienced security professional or just beginning to learn about cybersecurity, you know that protecting your organization against attackers requires more than just your network firewall. You need to have tools to detect lateral movement across your environment. This includes having access to tools that identify and respond to malicious activity quickly. One tool to help you is a honeypot check.
A honeypot is a fake computer system that lures an attacker into thinking they have gained entry to your network systems. It is designed to mimic a real computer system, with login warning messages, the same data fields and even a similar look-and-feel and logos of your other systems. The goal is to draw the attacker’s attention and allow you to monitor their actions without putting your production systems at risk.
Honeypots are useful because attackers move through your network like predators and seek misconfigured or vulnerable devices in order to steal information or cause damage. They typically spend a significant amount of time going after these useless systems before moving on to areas that actually contain valuable information. Diverting their attack to a honeypot allows you to capture them and gain insight into their tools, tactics and procedures (TTPs) while catching an attack before it is fully committed.
There are many types of honeypots, each emulating different aspects of your real systems. For example, some may emulate a virtual file system with fake folders and SharePoint sites, or others might be designed to look like a specific type of malware, such as an email server or USB storage device. A large collection of honeypots, called a honeynet, can also be used to gather intelligence and monitor a targeted attack.
When you set up a honeypot, you will need to monitor it regularly for attacks. A common mistake is to put a honeypot in the DMZ, where it will be exposed to the outside world. This will make it easy for an attacker to spot the honeypot, and most likely reroute their attacks to other, real targets.
Detecting the presence of a honeypot is important because it helps you to prioritize your response to a threat. However, attackers can often find ways to identify a honeypot if it is configured correctly. You can try to use a honeypot check to help you detect threat.
The best way to detect a honeypot is to use a security tool that will test for it and alert you when your SIEM is communicating with a honeypot. The tool should also provide a list of the specific honeypots that are being tested, as well as an option to filter the SIEM output by these honeypots so you can review the results.
In addition to detecting honeypots, Blumira’s security tool provides several other capabilities that support your threat detection and response efforts. For example, it identifies and flags the most frequent issues that can occur with tokens, including being a honeypot. This is a valuable feature that can save you from financial heartache, and it is available now with a free account.