honeypot

noun hon·ey·pot \ ˈhə-nē-ˌpät \

|Updated on: 25 Jun 2018

Definition of honeypot

1 : one that is attractive or desirable

2 : a substantial source of money

Recent Examples of honeypot from the Web

That allows honeypots such as Geenens' to estimate the size of the botnet based on the number of IPs doing the scanning.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "New IoT botnet offers DDoSes of once-unimaginable sizes for $20," 1 Feb. 2018
Recent news also revealed a legal congressional honeypot, an account that some lawmakers have used to settle harassment claims out of court.

— erica martinson, Anchorage Daily News, "Murkowski joins women senators to push for reform of harassment rules," 29 Mar. 2018
Another obstacle is Twitter’s reputation as a honeypot for trolls, harassers and fake news.

— jeran wittenstein, Bloomberg.com, "Twitter Analyst Support Piles Up as Turnaround Gains Steam," 19 Jan. 2018
By contrast, a honeypot Radware used in August to monitor Mirai and a different, much more advanced IoT botnet researchers are calling Hajime, saw infections on average every two minutes.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "Assessing the threat the Reaper botnet poses to the Internet—what we know now," 27 Oct. 2017
Cohn’s personal take from that honeypot? $72.5 million.

— william d. cohan, vanityfair.com, "Gary Cohn Can’t Quit Trump. Literally. He’s Tried More Than Once.," 13 Oct. 2017
Cohn’s personal take from that honeypot? $72.5 million.

— william d. cohan, The Hive, "Gary Cohn Can’t Quit Trump. Literally. He’s Tried More Than Once.," 13 Oct. 2017
In any event, a honeypot of laboratory devices Radware uses to monitor Reaper has logged only 4,000 unique IP addresses.

— dan goodin, Ars Technica, "Assessing the threat the Reaper botnet poses to the Internet—what we know now," 27 Oct. 2017
As Yiannopoulos flails, some of his erstwhile allies are hoping to dip into the Mercers’ reliable honeypot.

— tina nguyen, vanityfair.com, "Are the Mercers Being Taken for a Ride by Their Favorite Hate-Mongering Boy Toy?," 20 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'honeypot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of honeypot

1924

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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