With Raspberry Pi systems now available fully decked out for under $100, there are many uses that small business security teams can find for these versatile devices. Here are four of our favorites for using them in security roles.

1. Honeypot for Detecting Attackers on Your Network

Our HoneyPoint™ Agent runs on the Pi. It allows you to monitor for potential network compromises and attempts to breach your network by offering a fake system for attackers to target. Since the system has no real use, any interaction with it is suspicious at best, and malicious at worst. This allows for an easy-to-manage detection tool for your business.

2. Nessus Scanning Engine for Vulnerability Management

Nessus now supports running on the Pi 4 with 8 Gigs of RAM. Nessus is a very popular and powerful vulnerability scanner. With it, you can scan your network for vulnerabilities and find out what software needs updating.

3. Run Pi-Hole for Content Filtering

Pi-Hole is one of the best open-source security tools on the Internet. It provides enterprise-quality content filtering for free. Drop this on your network and implement it following the online instructions, and you’ve got affordable protection against malicious advertising, bad content, and many types of malware that inject via the browser.

4. Build a Cheap VPN Server

PiVPN makes setting a VPN for your small business needs incredibly simple. You can use this feature to access systems while you’re away or just to stay safer on public wireless networks. Most folks can deploy this in under an hour, and it can save you an immense amount of risk.

Using a Pi for some other risk management or security purpose? We’d love to hear about it. Drop me a line on Twitter (@lbhuston) and let me know what you’re up to. We’ll feature any ground breaking ideas in future posts.