Thursday, April 11, 2013

Meet the dark version of Google


The 'scariest search engine' on the internet has been revealed for peering in the darkest corners of the web and finding servers, webcams and traffic lights. 

Shodan, dubbed the 'search engine for hackers', collects information on 500 million devices every month, CNN reports. 

According to news.com.au, the search engine was named after the villain in the cyberpunk role-playing games System Shock and System Shock 2. 
Traffic lights, security cameras and home automation systems are all hooked up to the internet and easy for the 'dark Google' to find. 

One cybersecurity expert even used it to find a hockey rink that could be defrosted, traffic lights for an entire city, and the controls for a hydroelectric plant in France. 

Rapid 7 chief security officer told CNN that one can log into just about half of the internet with a default password, adding which is a massive security failure." 

Searching for 'default password' on Shodan brings up numerous servers, system controls and printers that use 'admin' as '1234' as username and password. 

Independent security tester Dan Tentler, at a Defcon cybersecurity talk, said tens of thousands of webcams, hydrogen fuel cells used in military instillations, power meters, theatre lighting, heat pumps are all online, the report added.

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