Donna and David are supposed to be talking about privacy and security in the Help Me With HIPAA podcasts so, why the heck are they talking about honeypots? Once they are done being silly, Donna and David discuss in Honeypots Get Quick Attention – Ep 340 how honeypots can be used in the cybersecurity war. You can tell David came up with the title of this episode.

What the heck is a honeypot when it comes to cybersecurity? Just like the old saying, ‘like flies to honey’, it is an enticing trap for cyber criminals. These honeypots are vulnerabilities left open on a network to entice cyber criminals to find them. They aren’t designed to actually locate and arrest bad actors, but instead collect data in order to help us understand what the cyber criminals are looking for, what type of attacks they might launch and what their strategies are. The scariest data shows just how fast the honeypots were found and attacked by cyber criminals.

There was a research study performed by Palo Alto Networks, that launched 320 honeypots all over the world with vulnerabilities that cyber criminals might be looking for. Within 24 hours of deploying the honeypots, 80% of them had been compromised. Knowing how fast they were attacked, how secure do you feel that your cyber security team is staying on top of new threats in the wild and updating and auditing your devices to keep them up to date and protected from threats? Are you reviewing your reports from your security team? Are you doing vulnerability scans on your networks? Do you feel a breach breathing down your neck? These are just some of the things you and your security team should be doing to protect your network and keep up with the ever changing cybersecurity landscape.

Cybersecurity is not cheap, but if you are attacked you will pay two or three times the price to recover from an attack. Hopefully, your business will survive it. Work with your security team to make sure they are keeping up with the latest cyber threats, scanning your networks and updating your network devices and security software. Doing these things once or twice a year is not enough. Don’t just assume “IT’s got us covered.” It is important from a business risk standpoint to be involved and understand what and how IT is protecting your network. Listen to Honeypots Get Quick Attention – Ep 340 and share some of the information with management. This could be a way for you to get your cybersecurity budget increased.