Active defense means setting up hurdles, loops and roadblocks on your side of the firewall that are meant to frustrate attackers and ultimately drive up the cost of their operations against you. Companies can use honeypots, false directories, phony data and plenty more that act as collection points for traces attackers leave on your systems. Organizations have to understand that hackers generally use compromised machines to attack networks, and those machines could be part of critical infrastructure, financial services organizations, medical institutions, or your neighbor’s network.
Source: https://threatpost.com/active-defense-drives-attack-costs-012413/77448/