Hands in the Honeypot: Detecting Real Security Threats

A honeypot is a network device that either appears to contain or does actually contain vulnerable data intended to lure an attacker into accessing. Whether a threat actor tries to log in to the interface, scans the device using a scanning tool, or attempts to access anything on the device such as a file, the alerting component will instantly inform your security team that something threatening is happening.

The beauty of a honeypot is that no matter what the alert is for, it’s either a legitimate attack, a user poking around on a network where they shouldn’t be, or a planned security test. This is not in any way a noisy device – all notifications from a honeypot can and should be acted upon.

A visualization of what an attacker would see if accessing the honeypot

Honeypots were once an overlooked and underappreciated technology. After years of working with very loud security solutions, technology workers are under the impression that if a product isn’t producing constant noise, it’s not functioning. The truth of the matter is, these honeypots are one of the most powerful internal detection mechanisms a network can have even if they only detect something once in a blue moon. A fully configured honeypot can help detect and stop a network intruder.

Setting up Your Honeypot

Blumira has made setting up a honeypot on the sensor quick and easy. We have developed a honeypot module on our sensors which allows you to create a honeypot at the sensor IP address. Once the Blumira sensor is created, you can choose to add the honeypot module at the click of a button. Once the honeypot is created, you will be automatically alerted when someone scans or accesses the sensor IP in any way.

Is A Honeypot Right For My Company?

In short, absolutely. Any added layer of security on a company network is an excellent choice. If that added layer of security is a honeypot, you have just strengthened your internal network detection tenfold. This virtual device is extremely lightweight while being a powerful form of intrusion detection. Having a Blumira honeypot is invaluable to any company that wants to detect and stop attacks within a network.

What a honeypot finding looks like in the Blumira platform – click to enlarge

Within the Blumira platform, we provide actionable playbooks, also called workflows, that enable anyone in IT to easily respond to a detected threat (no security experience required). Above is an example of a detection of an attacker accessing certain files hosted on a Blumira honeypot.

In these playbooks, we offer different automated options to block the source IP address and effectively protect against any access attempts from this source.

Learn more about how honeypots work in “What is a Honeypot?”