Honeypots: Re: Moving forward with defintion of honeypots

[Bill McCarty <bmccarty () apu edu>]

Hi all,

>    "A honeypot is an information system resource who's
>     value lies in unauthorized or illicit use of that
>     resource"
Okay, I'll definitely go anal here: This definition seems to imply that a 
honeypot has no value unless it's actually used without authorization or 
illicitly. I suggest that it's the *potential* for  misuse -- and the data 
provided by actual misuse -- that make a honeypot valuable.
Moreover, from my perspective as an information systems researcher, the 
term "information system" refers to a particular type of system: one 
designed to provide information to organizational decision makers. To avoid 
this misappropriation <g> of the term, I suggest deleting the word "system."
So, even though it's rather wordy, I prefer the following:

"A honeypot is an information resource, the value of which lies in its 
potential for unauthorized or illicit use and the data provided by such 
misuse."
Cheers,

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Bill McCarty