A Hack Trapper is an application run on a sometimes deliberately unprotected machine or network with the intention of alerting the user of connection attempts. A Hack Trapper listens on certain ports which are commonly used to gain unauthorized access to a machine or data on it. When a connection is made, the user is alerted in some way. In most cases the source IP address is logged to help trace the connection. Some of these ports include Remote Desktop Protocol, Windows File Sharing, NetBIOS, as well as many Trojan Horses and Backdoors.
Security
By using a Hack Trapper, a user can discover and subsequently report an unauthorized access event to the ISP of the connecting machine, as well as to the appropriate regulatory or enforcement agency. This way the connecting machine will be less likely to try to access or interfere with the system in the future. However, some have suggested that a Hack Trapper makes a computer less secure by making it more visible to other online entities.