Poor Security Exploited: Could Your Devices Be In Danger?
The concept of a web search engine is nothing new to the society in which we live. The first Internet search engines go back as far as the early 1990's, and have evolved into what they are today: software code that is designed to find user input string on the world wide web. While we think of common search engines, like Google and Bing , as useful and friendly resources there are less common search engines that can be used to cause harm and exploit poor security. Specifically, the search engine Shodan searches the "back channels" of the world wide web. The search provides data about devices linked to the Internet, such as traffic cameras, printers, web cameras and routers. A simple search can pick up on nearly any device connected to the Internet. Several demonstrations of the search have been performed, and it has been around for approximately three years. Searches using Shodan have presented results that include command and control systems fo...