Handbook of Information Security: Threats, Vulnerabilities, Prevention, Detection, and Management, Volume 3

The Use of Deception Techniques: Honeypots and Decoys

Fred Cohen, University of New Haven

Background and History

Deception Fundamentals

Historical Deceptions

Cognitive Deception Background

Computer Deception Background

Theoretical Results on Deceptions

Core Issues

Error Models

Models of Deception Effectiveness

Honeypots

Decoys

A Model for Deception of Computers

Commentary

Effects of Deceptions on Human Attackers

Models of Deception of More Complex Systems

Experiments and the Need for an Experimental Basis

Experiments to Date

Experiments We Believe Are Needed at This Time

Summary, Conclusions, and Further Work

Glossary

Cross References

References

Further Reading

BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

Honeypots and other sorts of decoys are systems or components intended to cause malicious actors to attack the wrong targets. Along the way, they produce potentially useful information for defenders.

Deception Fundamentals

According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language deception is defined as the act of deceit and deceit is defined as deception.

Fundamentally, deception exploits errors in cognitive systems for advantage. It is achieved by systematically inducing and suppressing signals entering the target cognitive system. There have been many approaches to the identification of cognitive errors and methods for their exploitation, and some of these are explored here; for more thorough coverage, see Cohen, Lambert, Preston, Berry, Stewart, & Thomas (2001a). Honeypots and decoys ...