Honeynet
What is honeynet?
A honeynet is a network set up with intentional vulnerabilities hosted on a decoy server to attract hackers. The primary purpose is to test network security by inviting attacks. This approach helps security experts study an actual attacker’s activities and methods to improve network security.
What is the difference between a honeypot and honeynet?
A honeynet contains one or more honeypots, which are computer systems on the internet. They are expressly set up to attract and trap interlopers who attempt to penetrate other people’s computer systems. Although the primary purpose of a honeynet is to gather information about attackers’ methods and motives, the decoy network can benefit its operator in other ways, such as diverting attackers from the real network and its resources.
In addition to the honeypots, a honeynet usually hosts real applications and services to make it look like an actual production network and a worthwhile target. However, because the honeynet does not actually serve any authorized users, any attempt to contact the network is considered an illicit attempt to breach its security. As such, any outbound activity is likely evidence that a system has been compromised.
For this reason, the suspect information is much more apparent than it would be in an actual network, where it would have to be tracked down amid all the legitimate network traffic and data. Applications within a honeynet typically have familiar names like finance or human resources to make them appealing to an attacker.
A virtual honeynet is one that, while appearing to be a physical network, is a virtual image of a network that resides on a single server. As it is not a network system, computer security analysts do not have to waste their time examining legitimate users found in real-world networks.
As a honeynet cannot detect attacks on legitimate systems, there is always the risk of an attacker moving laterally from the honeynet to a production network segment to penetrate the real network. To mitigate risk, it is best to isolate the honeynet network and monitor it proactively.
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