Cyber deception is a proactive defense that creates realistic fake infrastructure—decoy systems, bogus files, and fraudulent credentials—to mislead intruders, divert them away from real assets, and force attackers to reveal tactics and intent. By letting defenders engage with and observe adversary activity in a controlled environment, deception supplies high-value threat intelligence that enhances intrusion detection, refines access controls, and improves incident response and business continuity planning.

Practical implementations include honeypots that mimic SCADA or IoT interfaces, decoy documents and email accounts that entice attackers to act, planted fake credentials to track unauthorized access attempts, and network-level diversion that routes suspicious traffic into safe analysis zones. These measures protect live systems while generating actionable telemetry, enable continuous measurement of security performance, and complement existing controls to turn reactive defenses into proactive, intelligence-driven protection.

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Source: https://gca.isa.org/blog/implementing-cyber-deception-in-industrial-cybersecurity