A system for generating and deploying custom deceptions for a network, including an administrator computer for generating custom deception entities (CDEs), each CDE including parameters including inter alia (i) a type of entity, (ii) conditions for deployment of the CDE, and (iii) a deception type, and a management server, comprising an application programming interface for use by the administrator computer to generate CDEs through the medium of a formal language for specifying deceptions, and a translator for translating formal language CDEs to deceptions that are installable in network endpoint computers, wherein the management computer receives a request from a network endpoint computer to retrieve CDEs, selects CDEs that are relevant to the requesting network endpoint computer based on the parameters of the CDE, translates the requested CDEs to installable deceptions, and transmits the installable deceptions to the network endpoint computer for installation thereon.