Peer Review of Definition – Honeypot
TO: Amy Yung, Peanut Team Teammate
FROM: Jojo (Syau-jing) Huang, Peanut Team Teammate
DATE: September 26, 2019
SUBJECT: Review of your Definition – Honeypot
Hi Amy,
I have reviewed your definitions of honeypot. Although I am also a computer science student, I know nothing about network security, while your straightforward definition and clear explanation make me understand the term easily and also draw my interest in this new area. Moreover, I think you have done a great job in providing detail etymology and history which also helps us understand the origination of it. Please let me offer some small suggestions.
Example/Visual: Great use of the example provided by the image. Based on it, I was able to understand a real-world use case on the honeypot, which is quite interesting. However, you may introduce more detail about the example to make it more concrete. After reading your example, I am curious about what will happen to the attacker after it redirected to the other honeypot. Also, I am a little confused about the relationship between the group of honeypots (honeynet) and the other honeypot.
Organization: As a reader, I felt a little boring when I was reading the history of the honeypot at the first time, while it is much more interesting when I read it at the second time. I think the main reason is that the introduction of the required condition and operating principles come after the history part. As a result, I did not have enough information about the honeypot itself when I am reading its history. I think it may be better if you can move the two parts earlier than the history part.
Expansion Strategy: You have used etymology, history, required conditions, and operating principles effectively during the definition, and the history part is very impressive as it introduces the milestones of the honeypot technique development. However, I think you can expand more in the Required Conditions part so that the target audiences can understand it more clearly. For example, you have mentioned the vulnerabilities in the honeypot in that part, while I think the vulnerabilities is a technical term with some special meaning in the network security area. You may provide some more background or some simple examples about it, otherwise, a high school student without any computer science background may not understand the meaning of it correctly.
Generally, you have done an awesome job in defining the honeypot. It is simple enough for the non-technical audience to understand and attractive enough for a high school class. Thank you so much for introducing an interesting topic, and I hope my recommendation can help you improve your definition. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Link to Amy’s original definition: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-99a-2019wa/2019/09/23/assignment-13-definition-of-honeypot/