From Signal to Action: Why Identity-Focused Honeypots Should Be a Default Control

Organizations spend heavily on security tooling designed to detect everything, but too often they’re left reacting to noise. High-volume logs, endless alerts, and false positives wear down security teams, reducing response effectiveness. What’s missing isn’t more data—it’s better signal.

One powerful way to generate that signal is through the use of honeypots, particularly those designed to catch identity-based threats. Attackers rely on stealth to move laterally. But once inside, they become noisy—enumerating accounts, scanning directories, and probing for misconfigurations. This is where the defender gains an edge.

By creating decoy accounts that mimic legitimate identities—especially service accounts with aged passwords and attractive privileges—defenders can detect activity that should never happen. These accounts can be equipped with SPNs (service principal names), making them ripe for Kerberoasting attacks. If someone tries to request a ticket or access the account, it sets off an alert that’s hard to dispute: someone is exploring, and it’s not a legitimate user.

This detection method doesn’t require expensive software. In fact, many organizations can implement basic honeypot techniques using built-in features of Active Directory, third-party honeytoken tools, or even decommissioned accounts. What’s essential is that the traps blend in. Their naming must align with organizational patterns. They must carry a history or context that makes them believable. And the alerts they trigger must be tightly integrated into SOC workflows, complete with standard operating procedures for triage.

More sophisticated organizations may choose to implement deception technologies that create entire phantom environments—users, shares, and assets that only attackers will ever see. But even at the basic level, the ROI is compelling. Unlike traditional detection, where every user action is a potential false positive, honeypot alerts are inherently high-confidence. If someone touches the trap, something’s wrong.

For CISOs and security architects, the challenge is strategic integration. These signals must not be isolated—they should enrich threat hunting, drive incident response, and inform identity and access management policies. And they must be part of a wider cultural and operational effort, where defenders collaborate with infrastructure teams to craft believable decoys and interpret their signals correctly.

In a world where attackers often stay hidden for months, the sooner you know they’re there, the better. Honeypots won’t prevent an attack—but they can stop it from becoming a breach.

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🔆 Key Episode Highlights

❶ Detection That Starts with Deception

• Honeypots shift detection from guesswork to certainty—any interaction is inherently suspicious.
• Using repurposed service accounts adds authenticity and enhances attacker engagement.

❷ Identity Is the New Tripwire

• Attackers often target old, poorly managed service accounts for persistence.
• Well-crafted decoy accounts mimic this profile, providing early, actionable alerts.

❸ Build Trust Across Teams

• Collaboration between security and IT operations ensures honeypots are believable and maintained.
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) must treat honeypot alerts as high-priority, with clear response protocols.

🎤 Meet the Guest

Sean Metcalf , Identity Security Architect at TrustedSec | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmmetcalf/

🎙️ Meet the Host

Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of The Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast | View Profile

✨ Meet the Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by:

LevelBlue: Learn How LevelBlue Protects Enterprise Networks

ThreatLocker: Discover ThreatLocker’s Endpoint Security Solution

📒 Resources

• Inspiring Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7353806074694541313-xzQl/
• Article: The Art of the Honeypot Account: Making the Unusual Look Normal: https://www.hub.trimarcsecurity.com/post/the-art-of-the-honeypot-account-making-the-unusual-look-normal
• Article: Trimarc Research: Detecting Kerberoasting Activity: https://www.hub.trimarcsecurity.com/post/trimarc-research-detecting-kerberoasting-activity
• Article: Detecting Password Spraying with Security Event Auditing: https://www.hub.trimarcsecurity.com/post/trimarc-research-detecting-password-spraying-with-security-event-auditing

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ⓘ About Sean Martin

Sean Martin is a life-long musician and the host of the Music Evolves Podcast; a career technologist, cybersecurity professional, and host of the Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast; and the co-host of both the Random and Unscripted Podcast and On Location Event Coverage Podcast. These shows are all part of ITSPmagazine—the innovative multi-media platform where intellectual exchange is encouraged and which he co-founded with his good friend Marco Ciappelli, to explore and discuss topics at The Intersection of Technology, Cybersecurity, and Society.™️

Want to connect with Sean and Marco On Location at an event or conference near you? See where they will be next: https://www.itspmagazine.com/on-location

To learn more about Sean, visit his personal website.