IT technology

Cybersecurity

A honeypot is a security mechanism or decoy system designed to attract and detect cyberattacks by mimicking a vulnerable target. It is intentionally set up to appear as a legitimate part of a network or application but contains no real data or critical functionality. The primary purpose of a honeypot is to study attackers' methods, gather intelligence on threats, and divert their attention away from actual systems.  

Honeypots can be classified into different types:  
1. **Production Honeypots**: Used in real environments to detect and mitigate attacks (e.g., a fake database server).  
2. **Research Honeypots**: Deployed by security researchers to analyze attack patterns and trends.  

**Example**: A company sets up a fake web server (honeypot) that mimics its e-commerce platform but doesn’t store real customer data. Attackers attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in this honeypot, allowing the security team to monitor their techniques without risking actual systems.  

In cloud environments, **Tencent Cloud** offers security solutions like **Host Security (HSM)** and **Cloud Workload Protection (CWP)** that can integrate with honeypot-like strategies to detect intrusions. Additionally, Tencent Cloud’s **Security Center** provides threat intelligence to help identify and respond to attacks.

A honeypot is a security mechanism or decoy system designed to attract and detect cyberattacks by mimicking a vulnerable target. It is intentionally set up to appear as a legitimate part of a network or application but contains no real data or critical functionality. The primary purpose of a honeypot is to study attackers' methods, gather intelligence on threats, and divert their attention away

What is the definition of a honeypot?

A honeypot is a security mechanism or decoy system designed to attract and detect cyberattacks by mimicking a vulnerable target. It is intentionally set up to appear as a legitimate part of a network ...