The Effectiveness of Using a Raspberry PI as a Honeypot Sensor
Our modern society is becoming increasingly dependent on interconnected computerized devices. With this increasing dependency we are also seeing a growing number of small and medium sized businesses that are entering cyberspace. It has been observed that “62% of cyber-breach victims are small to mid-size businesses, which are at the greatest risk for an attack.” It has also been noted that honeypots are “the best tool for looking into malicious hacker activity.”
The traditional approach to deploying a honeynet (a collection of honeypots networked together to give the attacker the impression of having infiltrated a complete corporate network) has been to utilize honeypots that are either physical computers that have been configured to attract the attention of attackers, or to use an emulated system on a server. One major impediment for small and medium sized businesses, as well as academic institutions interested in deploying honeynets for research and course work, is the cost of deploying dedicated computers and/or servers for a honeynet. In this presentation we will highlight our current progress and findings into utilizing Raspberry Pis as the honeypots in a honeynet. We will discuss the benefits and limitations of the various configurations and contrast our approach with traditional ones such as traditional computer-based physical honeypot or server virtual honeypot based honeynet.
Speaker Bio:
The traditional approach to deploying a honeynet (a collection of honeypots networked together to give the attacker the impression of having infiltrated a complete corporate network) has been to utilize honeypots that are either physical computers that have been configured to attract the attention of attackers, or to use an emulated system on a server. One major impediment for small and medium sized businesses, as well as academic institutions interested in deploying honeynets for research and course work, is the cost of deploying dedicated computers and/or servers for a honeynet. In this presentation we will highlight our current progress and findings into utilizing Raspberry Pis as the honeypots in a honeynet. We will discuss the benefits and limitations of the various configurations and contrast our approach with traditional ones such as traditional computer-based physical honeypot or server virtual honeypot based honeynet.
Dr. Jason R. Lewis is an assistant professor of computer and computational sciences at the University of the Virgin Islands, focusing on cyber-security and digital forensics. Dr. Lewis also has an adjunct appointment with the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida and is managing partner of CyForce, a digital forensic services company. Dr. Lewis spent eight years in local law enforcement, during which time he was assigned to the U.S. Secret Service’s Colorado Electronic Crimes Task Force, where he investigated electronic and cyber crimes. Dr. Lewis holds a doctorate in computer science from Clemson University and a masters of science in mathematical sciences from East Tennessee State University.