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Malicious honeypots are on the rise! Misleading security teams and distorting internet scan results, these cyber deception tactics add a new wrinkle to cybersecurity operations. But CyberMaxx is on top of it!
Understanding the Basics: What Are Honeypots in Cybersecurity?
Traditional honeypots are frequently used to gather threat intelligence. They allow security teams to lure cyber attackers into exploiting a vulnerability and delivering an attack, providing insights into the methods and tactics used. Here’s how:
The Role of Traditional Honeypots
Honeypots are decoys. Their systems are intentionally sent out to provide information on a vulnerability or attack opportunity. The goal: Attract adversaries to exploit that vulnerability and monitor tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
For example, let’s say a financial services business found a rise in attacks targeting online banking apps / self-service portals. A security team, hoping to understand potential methods and beef up security accordingly, could set up a fake banking site. It could be intentionally weak in security and appealing to cybercriminals. From there, the team can advertise the honeypot on various dark web forums and monitor TTPs.
How Honeypots Aid in Threat Detection
Imagine you can see precisely how a cyber attack will get carried out. Wouldn’t that be pretty useful for preparing defenses? Well, that’s what a honeypot does. By sending one out and letting attackers come to you (in a secure, irrelevant environment), you can collect data on TTPs and attack indicators.
Analyzing interactions with these decoy systems lets you gather intel. With that intel, your threat detection systems know exactly what to look for while monitoring user behaviors, system changes, network processes, etc. And because honeypots replicate real systems, you get far more accurate TTP insights that you can apply to your security defenses.
Enter the Malicious Honeypot: A Threat Actor’s New Tool
Honeypots have traditionally been used by the “good guys.” That is, until recently. Per our report on malicious honeypots, threat actors have adapted the technology for their own gain.
What Is a Malicious Honeypot?
A malicious honeypot does the opposite of a traditional one. Rather than a deceptive trap set by security teams for cybercriminals, the “bad guys” set these traps to mislead security teams. These honeypots feed false (or misleading) data to security teams and ultimately pollute internet scanner results.
How Malicious Honeypots Disrupt Security Efforts
Malicious honeypots, fully owned and controlled by threat actors, send security operations in the wrong direction. It lures unsuspecting threat intelligence teams into false assumptions about an attacker’s TTPs and possible motives. So if you’re chasing a threat that either doesn’t exist or isn’t as prominent as you thought, you’ll find yourself on a “wild goose chase.”
For example, you might waste resources on unnecessary controls or delay investigating an anomaly because you didn’t think it was relevant.
The other challenge is when threat actors exploit honeypots to covertly carry out malicious operations. An attacker might identify and use IP addresses that are known as honeypots and, therefore, ignored by most security teams. Meanwhile, they can repurpose these into command and control (C2) servers. Because they’re masked as benign honeypots, attackers can operate undetected within the network.
The Impact of Malicious Honeypots on Cybersecurity
While they don’t directly harm your network, malicious honeypots can drastically impact data reliability and incident response from misrepresented threat insights:
Polluting Threat Intelligence
Having data on your attackers lets you prepare for what they might throw at you. But what if that data is skewed or inaccurate? Malicious honeypots can drastically misguide security teams. For example, if you were scanning the internet for information on known vulnerabilities, honeypots would cause your scanners to flag non-existent vulnerabilities or inflated numbers on potential threats.
Similarly, if you were documenting interactions with attackers to spot TTPs, they may intentionally share data that misrepresents how they deliver attacks and which tools are used. These false reports could send you in the wrong direction while threat profiling or when crafting a cybersecurity strategy.
Wasting Resources From Bad Threat Intelligence
The latter challenge that comes with polluted threat intelligence is how you allocate resources after the fact.
Imagine you’re scanning the web to identify TTPs your company should be most concerned about. Unaware of malicious honeypots, your threat intelligence came in that the biggest concern to your industry was a list of particular malware signatures. Therefore, you spend tons of money upgrading antivirus solutions and enhancing intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDPS) to account for these signatures.
Little did you know that man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks are actually the most prevalent. But rather than invest in stronger encryption and robust network security protocols that could mitigate MitM risks, you spent most of the budget on defending against threats that were not as crucial to your business.
How CyberMaxx Mitigates the Risks of Malicious Honeypots
CyberMaxx is on the case! Through our resilient threat intelligence and research teams, we’re able to identify and neutralize the impact of malicious honeypots — demonstrating our proactive approach to emerging cyber threats.
Advanced Threat Filtering Techniques
When our threat research team scans the web for attack data and methods, we don’t just assume every data point is valid. We use filtering tools to spot and disregard any data originating from known malicious honeypots. This prevents us from misrepresenting threats or TTPs from inflated (or deflated) data.
It ultimately lets us improve our detection systems by only focusing on legitimate vulnerability and threat insights.
Enhanced Threat Intelligence Validation
To further our commitment to accurate threat intelligence, we ensure only legitimate honeypots (used by actual security teams) are used for insights. When a honeypot is detected, our team manually investigates whether it’s for research purposes or acting maliciously. If it’s determined to be a “good” honeypot, we’ll include it in our models.
These techniques further reduce the risk of malicious honeypots influencing cybersecurity decisions.
The Future of Honeypots and Deception in Cybersecurity
Threat actors thrive on deception. And we don’t expect them to stop innovating and adapting their methods anytime soon. But CyberMaxx is committed to staying prepared for the challenges malicious honeypots present.
The Need for Continued Innovation in Deception Tactics
While ordinarily used to sharpen cyber defenses, cybercriminals have exploited honeypots for their malicious intent. It’s what makes staying ahead of these threats so vital. And it all starts with advancing detection technology.
By keeping up with emerging trends and nuanced tactics via honeypots, we can out-innovate and outmaneuver adversaries.
CyberMaxx’s Commitment to Adaptive Defense
We serve clients on the motto: “Think like an Adversary. Defend like a Guardian.” With that comes a commitment to staying proactive against evolving threats by understanding how they operate.
And ensuring reliable threat intelligence through adaptive security practices and continuous monitoring is how we’ll prevent malicious honeypots from impacting your security posture.
Defense Against the New Wave of Cyber Deception Tactics
Malicious honeypots may be more prominent, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay vigilant. CyberMaxx is taking a proactive stance against these deceptive tactics through its advanced threat data filtering and validation. The result: Our clients always have access to trustworthy threat intelligence at their fingertips.