Honey, I Have Trapped Your National Secrets: The Cyber Security Threat of Honey Trapping

Its strategic use dating as far back as the first world war, honey trapping has long been used as an espionage strategy to retrieve confidential information from ‘targets’. Although what honey trapping disguises itself as might suggest otherwise, it is a significant security threat. A craft that was earlier a spying tool used for leverage has acquired a digital character, now posing as a cyber security threat. Before entering the digital realm, honey traps have been used to gather crucial information in times of war and peace alike- giving way to cinema tropes like the femme fatale- the fatal woman, who uses seduction to lure men and gather secrets. Seduction for the sake of extraction is what is commonly associated with women in espionage, the ones who partake in these ‘honey traps’, using gendered manipulation to secure data.

Even though these women were not made to engage in formal combat, while viewing these sexual escapades of reconnaissance through a feminist lens, what stands out the most is the strategic use of bodies of women and the unbridled weaponization of sex itself. The dynamics of these operations were influenced by traditional gender roles and expectations, particularly when it came to the representation of women as seductresses in honey trap scenarios.

 In an already all-male profession like the intelligence community, the role assigned to women was that of the seductress, a role that would soon be confronted with trivialization, labelling women engaging in the deployment of  honey traps as promiscuous beings whose relevance in the field depended solely on their tactful use of sex. Contributions of women like Mata Hari who was a striptease dancer and a convicted spy in World War 1 and Chritine Skeeler who mangled the British parliament during the cold war have further solidified the stereotype of the ‘seductress spy’. This stereotype trivializes their contributions as spies or workers of the intelligence community and instead places paramount importance on the act sex. As it was sex that granted officials of national governments accesses to confidential information, no due acknowledgement was given to the women who willingly sexualized themselves to attain information. In this perception of women in espionage, sexualization of the bodies of women occurs simultaneously to the trivialization of their actual wits and intelligence, thus, making it impossible for sex and intellectual capabilities to coexist. The rampant use of bodies of women to secure information and using sex as bait is only made possible by gendered roles and stereotypes which were all the more prevalent then. A feminist lens on the issue of honey trapping also illuminates how the process of honey trapping, to which sexualization and objectification of the female body is detrimental hinders the agency of the seductress or temptress. While they serve the national interest of their respective countries, the practices they engage in perpetuate gender roles and add on to the demonization of ‘sexualised’ women.

The arrival of this practice of gendered manipulation into the digital age has made it possible for ‘bodies’ to be excluded from this coquettish operation. Stepping in of honey traps on online platforms has transformed a sexually transactional tool of espionage into a major cybersecurity threat, as now honey traps have acquired a much wider range. In case of India, honey trapping is much more common in the realm of cybersecurity than in its traditional form. Pakistani agents often disguise themselves as women online, who are willing to exchange nude photographs in exchange for information regarding national projects. The head of the Defence Research and Development Organization's Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) laboratory, scientist Kurulkar, was recently detained by Maharashtra's anti-terrorism squad for allegedly disclosing private material to a Pakistani agent who was operating under the disguise of a woman. (Deuskar, n.d.) Many such attempts have bee made by the Pakistani intelligence to lure men, usually scientists or defence personnels into providing information crucial to the national security of their nation. Although The digital space has facilitated the exclusion of bodies of women from this highly unethical, inherently sexist, and onerous practice, it continues to strategically use the ‘identities’ of women and in turn it weaponizes these identities rather than actual bodies. Much like traditional honey trapping cyber honey trapping is operating already on highly unethical grounds as it completely disregards personal boundaries and consent, it is responsible for perpetuating negative gendered stereotypes and objectifying the individuals involved in honey trapping.

References

1.     Deuskar, N. (2023, June 12). Pakistani spies are honey trapping India's scientists and soldiers by pretending to be women online. Scroll.in. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://scroll.in/article/1052396/pakistani-spies-are-honey-trapping-india-s-scientists-and-soldiers-by-pretending-to-be-women-online 

2.     Knightley, P. (2010, December 3). The History of the Honey Trap. Foreign Policy. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/03/12/the-history-of-the-honey-trap/ 

3.      Mundy, L. (2019, June 15). Female Spies and Their Secrets. The Atlantic. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/female-spies-world-war-ii/588058/ 

4.     Schlesinger, H. R. (2022, May 13). Honey Traps. The History Press. Retrieved April 17, 2023, from https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/honey-traps/