This Robotic Honeypot Could Catch the Factory-Hacking Ne’er-Do-Wells of the Near Future

A honeypot, in computer security terms, is a network target that is intentionally designed to entice black hat hackers. It’s a sort of virtual sting operation—the digital equivalent of police leaving the keys sitting in the seat of an unlocked car parked in a bad neighborhood. The idea is that hackers will go after some dummy data and give themselves away in the process. Now, a team of researchers from Georgia Tech is bringing that idea into the physical world with the HoneyBot.

As they envision, the HoneyBot will sit quietly in the corner of a factory waiting for some unsuspecting hacker to attempt to take control. When they do, a security team can then begin tracking them down. But, it wouldn’t do much good if the hacker immediately realized the robot wasn’t actually doing what is was told, which is where the deviousness of the HoneyBot becomes apparent.

After a hacker has gained control—or so they think—the HoneyBot will send fake sensor data to make it appear as if it’s doing what the hacker wants. In reality, it won’t be following the hacker’s instructions at all, but will make them think it is—by spoofing accelerometer data for example. The hacker thinks they’re successfully controlling the robot, which gives the security team time to gain information about them.

Right now, this is mostly a proof-of-concept. But, as automated factories full of robots become the norm, the HoneyBot may soon be a necessary part of cybersecurity.