The Honey Stick Project

The Honey Stick Project was initiated to provide a forum for investigating and publishing information about the implications of using Mobile Storage Devices for collecting information. As we all know USB Memory Sticks are getting cheaper, can hold massive amounts of data, and are very easy to lose. This means that you will be seeing more of these things lying around.

The term “Honey Stick” was derived from the computer network security term “Honey Pot”. A Honey Pot is essentially a decoy placed somewhere on a computer network that looks to be an interesting target for hackers exploring the network. However, they are designed to keep the attacker busy, and provide them with interesting information and challenges to keep them busy while the network owner can identify and investigate the attacker.

A Honey Stick is also not what it seems. It may look like a lost USB drive, but may contain malicious programs, or other mechanisms for gathering information about whoever picks it up, or whatever system it gets connected to.

At this point, I have many ideas and questions about how these devices will be used. This is just a starting point for something that has piqued the interest of most people I’ve discussed it with. If you are interested in joining the community, please register so you can contribute comments and maybe help with the research.

Please come back often to see what’s happening.

- Scott Wright