What is honey pot (honeypot) ? - Security Term

A honey pot is a computer system on the Internet that is expressly set up to attract and "trap" people who attempt to penetrate other people's computer systems. (This includes the hacker, cracker, and script kiddy.)

To set up a honey pot, it is recommended that you:

• Install the operating system without patches installed and using typical defaults and options
• Make sure that there is no data on the system that cannot safely be destroyed
• Add the application that is designed to record the activities of the invader

Maintaining a honey pot is said to require a considerable amount of attention and may offer as its highest value nothing more than a learning experience (that is, you may not catch any hackers).

source: searchsecurity.techtarget