Cyber deception refers to taking steps to confuse and draw out attackers within your environment.  By placing a variety of false flags throughout your organization, adversaries can be detected when they interact with those systems while moving through and enumerating the systems in your environment.  Cyber deception is not a replacement for good IT security hygiene; however, it can provide an effective means of identifying adversaries that were previously undetected inside of your networks and allow you to launch an effective response to mitigate the damage caused by their presence.

In addition to improving detection, cyber deception techniques can also be leveraged to confuse and disorient an adversary who may gain a foothold inside your environment. Attackers must perform enumeration and discovery of systems and data of value inside of your environment. Cyber deception techniques can be applied to make this task more difficult, provide false readings to the adversary, and slowing their progress when they attempt to identify data of value in your organization. By forcing them to expend more time and resources to achieve their intended objectives, you increase your opportunities to detect and respond to the threat.

Forward Defense can help you design a cyber deception program, leveraging commercial or open source products, to best meet the needs of your organization.