The challenge
Cybersecurity is a big issue, not only because cyber criminals can wreak havoc on organizations, but also because of costs.
Detecting hackers inside the network is easily the highest ongoing expense because it requires human expertise, and it doesn't come cheap.
There aren't many of choice, it always comes down to analyzing huge amounts of logs/events and looking for the needle in the haystack - Right?
Well, not necessarily.
A different approach
Honeypots offer a fundamentally different approach: they are digital traps that trigger when when interacted with. Much cheaper to deploy and maintain while keeping false positives - and human hours - near zero.
Yes, there is a catch: they are a Passive security solution.
But this downside is much, much less significant than you might think.
Why Honeypots are so effective
Hackers are far from the Hollywood stereotype, they don't type quickly on a flashy screens while a "Breaching Firewall" loading bar fills up.
They are smart, patient and methodical. They use multiple techniques to fly under the radar and stay undetected while poking around at your assets.
Actual hacking is all about probing, observing and gathering information. It's not about going head-on into your main assets, it's sneakily moving around and getting closer, one step at a time.
And this is why Honeypots are so effective, the chance of a Honeypot being interacted with is high, very high. And you shouldn't have a single one.
A good honeypot poses as a mid-tier system: interesting, realistic, potentially useful to hit the jackpot - an easy prey.
Think of an internal service like a Database, a Backup Server or even a SCADA System for a CNC machine but it's fake. Instead of finding secrets and information, the attacker themself is found.
Against a skilled attacker, Honeypots are more effective than log-based security solutions costing orders of magnitude more because they play the attacker's game, not the defender's.
Deception technology
The beautiful part of Honeypots - if the cost-effectiveness ratio wasn't already convincing enough - is they not only Detect hackers, they Deceive them.
A good Honeypot welcomes the attacker in, not easily enough to require no effort and not hard enough to discourage them. It keeps the illusion up even after the initial breach, keeping the fake secret one step further away - and this buys time to neutralize the threat before damage can happen.