Key Criteria for Evaluating Deception Technologyv1.0

An Evaluation Guide for Technology Decision Makers

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Deception Technology Primer
  3. Report Methodology
  4. Decision Criteria Analysis
  5. Evaluation Metrics
  6. Key Criteria: Impact Analysis
  7. Analyst’s Take
  8. About Chris Ray

1. Summary

Attacker techniques and behaviors are constantly improving and evolving. As cyber security defenses zig, attackers zag. This dynamic creates a changed environment—what worked in the past to detect malicious actions most likely won’t work today or in the future. Deception technology (DT) tackles this quandary head on and provides defenders the ability to set traps for attackers and to gather valuable information for making better decisions.

Historically, DT would be executed in the form of either a honeypot or a sandbox. A honeypot is a trap set by defenders to emulate a real device in the network, while a sandbox is a virtual environment meant to deceive malware and allow analysis of the malware post-exploitation without endangering the organization.

Today, DT is described in much broader terms. Legacy DT solutions that attempt to emulate typical on-premises infrastructure like Linux and Windows hosts are ill fitting for modern organizations that have no perimeter or physical data centers. Components like cloud, SDN, remote workers, and the need for forensic analysis of attacker techniques have driven the evolution of DT to include features like mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK or SHIELD frameworks, low-code/no-code customization, and leveraging bait or lures for agentless deception.

How to Read this Report

This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:

Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.

GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.

Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.

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