"Honey pot" as a metaphor existed long before this. Just because in your life's context the security-related is more dominant doesn't mean the dozen other uses of "honey pot" need to be let go of.
What you're suggesting isn't "let's keep...", since at no point in time it exclusively meant that one thing.
It's the NYT, not HN, but still they used the phrase 'honey pot for hackers'. The 'for hackers' part is what makes the whole phrase misleading. It's as if they said "Physicist says gravity is only a theory": A physicist would never use the word 'only' there, even though a non-scientist might. The word 'theory' means something very specific to a scientist but its meaning is a lot looser to a lay person.
I really get tired of non-security people entering a security discussion to redefine known security terms to fit some irrelevant personal emotional familiarity. Worse is when you point that out suddenly people are somehow greatly offended.
The way the term is used is correct in the article. Security people use based on the common definition, it's just in security it is assumed that it is with the intent of trapping the person going for the honey.
I agree that domain specific terminology, general language and another domain's language is confusing.
I'm sure a developer at a toy company and management could get confused by a conversation about models.
Doesn't mean either of them are right. Language is frequently ambiguous and we avoid it internally in our domains where possible.
When I read the title, I read it as though these reward programs were stings used to catch black hat Hackers. The purpose of language is to communicate meaning and this headline fails to do so properly.
Honey pot (and honey trap) have been used in espionage, and related fiction, where a target is seduced sexually. The infosec version of this is essentially the same approach though.
Also it's been used to describe vaginas and male sex toys.
noun: honey-pot
1.
- a container for honey. "an earthenware honeypot"
- an enticing source of pleasure or reward. "massive increases in government -- purchases became a honeypot for the unscrupulous"
- a place to which many people are attracted. "the tourist honeypot of St Ives"
2. VULGAR SLANG
- a woman's genitals
I guess the definition we are used to is the metaphor "an enticing source of pleasure or reward."
But with the added nuance that you're intention is to trap the enticed in honey...
What you're suggesting isn't "let's keep...", since at no point in time it exclusively meant that one thing.