One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that camouflages
business-activity information in telemetry signals from a computer
system. During operation, the system monitors telemetry signals from the
computer system to obtain a time series containing a telemetry metric
which provides business-activity information. Next, for each
telemetry-metric value contained in the time series, the system compares
the telemetry-metric value with a predetermined threshold level. If the
telemetry-metric value is below the predetermined threshold level, the
system then generates artificial activity associated with the telemetry
metric in the computer system, so that the artificial activity causes the
telemetry-metric value to exceed the predetermined threshold level.