What term describes a device that slows attackers by absorbing their efforts, acting as a decoy?

• A. Tarpit
• B. Honeypot
• C. Firewall
• D. IDS

Answer: (A)

Tarpits are designed to slow attackers by absorbing their efforts, acting as a decoy. Instead of blocking or immediately reporting, a tarpit accepts connections or traffic and intentionally delays responses or keeps the interaction going with minimal value, wasting the attacker’s time and computing resources. This slows automated scans and worm propagation, giving defenders time to react and making the attack less efficient. By contrast, a honeypot aims to lure attackers to interact with a fake system to gather data, a firewall blocks or filters traffic, and an IDS detects and alerts without primarily slowing down the attacker.