Trapping malware with honeypots

Dec. 10, 2012 — Hackers systematically scan the Internet for vulnerable systems with the help of self-spreading malware. On average, accessible systems are the target of an attack every three minutes whereby security loopholes are often exploited. In order to protect systems better, cyber experts study their opponents' work. One possibility is the use of "Honeypots." These are computers integrated into the Internet and are only there to record attempted attacks.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE evaluate these attacks and collect valuable information about the hackers' current methods and the malware they use.

In the "HoneypotMe" project they have developed this approach further. For example, they redirect attacks on regular systems to an external analysis computer. As the attacking system is unaware of this forwarding, attacks on monitored systems can actively be made more difficult.

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