Modelling the costs and benefits of Honeynets

Honeynets are collections networked of computer systems which are intended to be attacked and broken into in an observed fashion, keeping track of any (mis-)use. Similar to other IT-security technologies there is a lot of gospel on the benefits of Honeynets, while there is little analysis on the exact gain offered by them and the associated cost. We are presenting a model helpful in understanding the economic aspects of Honeynet deployment. In section 2 we present an overview of the technical aspects of Honeynets. Sections 3 and 4 collect benefits and respective costs of Honeynets. Following that section 5 contains our model of Honeynet deployment followed by section 6 where we summarize our findings.