Developed by John Matherly, Shodan is a search engine designed to help users find certain pieces of software, determine which applications are most popular, identify anonymous FTP servers, or investigate new vulnerabilities and what hosts they could infect. It also serves as a window into millions of unsecured online connections. According to an article on CNN Money, Shodan runs nonstop, collecting data from approximately 500 million connected devices and services each month. Through a simple search on Shodan, a user can identify a number of systems that either have no security measures in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Crawling & Indexing | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Security | Search & Society | Search Engines | Search Engines: Meta Search Engines | Search Features: Safety

Bloomberg News reports Google has filed a petition against a government request for information after receiving a "National Security Letter." The details of the requested information are currently not disclosed, as you would imagine. Bloomberg says it is rare for a company to fight back after receiving such a request from a government agency. Reportedly the push back from Google comes three weeks after San Francisco federal judge ruled that National Security Letters, which are issued without a warrant, are unconstitutional. Again, there are no details on the specific government demand bu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Legal: Regulation | Legal: Security

Chris Larsen from Blue Coat Security shared new statistics on the number of poisoned search results during the holiday shopping season. The new stats show an 80% jump in the number of clicks on infected search results from their last report in August. Specifically, they tracked 13,616 different clicks over 10 days, which is an average of 1361.6 different search engine poisoned clicks per day. During the August or Olympics research set, they had a total of 28,277 different search engine poisoned clicks in 39 days, which is about 725 per day. That is over an 80% increase in the number of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Security | Google: Web Search | Legal: Security

Google's security blog announced today several updates on how they have been addressing malware and hacked sites on the internet. Google said that between 12 and 14 million search queries per day return warnings that at least one of the results listed in the Google search results were compromised. Google has two types of labels for sites that were hacked, either they are listed as compromised or as harmful. The difference is that compromised sites are hacked and the content and links may have changed but they are likely not harmful to the searcher to click on them. The harmful warning is an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Security | Google: Web Search | Legal: Security | Top News

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee abruptly adjourned today without voting on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a controversial measure that would impose radical new requirements on search engines, ISPs, ad networks and other key internet players. The hearings will resume "earliest practical day that Congress is in session" according to the chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex), but with the Congressional holiday recess imminent that could be weeks from now. UPDATE: Representative @DarrellIssa tweeted that the Judiciary Committee has scheduled the rest of #SOPA markup [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Copyright | Legal: Regulation | Legal: Security

Google, Microsoft and scores of other companies are pushing us all into the "cloud"—where all of our information is stored online and is instantly accessible from any internet-connected device. This instant, universal access is a phenomenal benefit for most people. And since many of these cloud-based services are "free" (in the sense that they are subsidized by advertising) and are reliable and mostly maintenance-free (automatic software upgrades) virtually all of us are inexorably living more of our online lives in the cloud. This also means we're increasingly trusting the companies tha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Google: Gmail | Legal: Security

Circumstantial and indirect evidence has long implicated the Chinese government and its surrogates in numerous incidents of digital espionage and other hacking into US corporations' and government-owned websites and databases. The infamous Gmail hacking episode that triggered Google's censorship protest and "withdrawal" from the Chinese search market is only one example. The Chinese themselves have vigorously and indignantly denied any and all such accusations, despite mounting evidence to the contrary.  Now new evidence of Chinese state-sponsored "cyberattacks" comes in the form of a broa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Google: Outside US | Legal: Security

With much of the world's focus on the tragic earthquake in Japan, Internet security watchers are warning about dangerous web pages showing up in some quake-related search results. Trend Micro reported earlier this morning that malware sites had started targeting search terms shortly after the quake hit. As shown in the image above, Trend Micro found several sites offering fake anti-virus software in the search results for the term, "most recent earthquake in Japan." Thanks to Trend Micro's post and related coverage, the first page of Google's results for that phrase now includes several [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Trends | Legal: Security

A broad coalition of interest groups, non-profits and private companies, including Microsoft, Google, AOL, the ACLU, EFF and others, have come together to set forth four principles that would update Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). That statute was enacted in 1986 and, in the words of Jim Dempsey, Vice President for Public Policy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, hasn't kept pace with technology and the way that people use the internet today. The point was made repeatedly that the "internet didn't even really exist" in 1986. The principles aim to upgrade and enhance p [...]

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Ben Edelman uncovered evidence that even if you disable the Google Toolbar, Google may still be tracking your web browsing behavior. Edelman documents how he disabled the Google Toolbar within the preference, then visited a web page and captured how Google was sending browsing data from the toolbar to Google's servers. Edelman first clicked the "X" icon at the top left of the Google Toolbar. Then he selected "Disable Google Toolbar only for this window," and clicked "okay." While in the same window, requested the Whitehouse.gov site. He noticed that his network monitor showing that th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Security | Google: Toolbar | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Security

Danger, thy name is Jessica Biel! No, we're not turning Search Engine Land into a celebrity gossip blog ... we're talking about the risks of searching online for certain celebrities. And, according to a McAfee report issued today, Jessica Biel is the most dangerous celebrity on the web, passing last year's master of search disaster, Brad Pitt. McAfee explains the risks involved in being a search engine-using fan of Jessica Biel: "Fans searching for "Jessica Biel" or "Jessica Biel downloads," "Jessica Biel wallpaper," "Jessica Biel screen savers," "Jessica Biel photos" and "Jessica B [...]

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A report (PDF) by LegitScript and KnujOn claims that of the prescription drug and online pharmacy search ads on Bing (i.e. adCenter), Microsoft's search engine, 89.7% led to "rogue" Internet pharmacies. By "rogue" they mean Internet pharmacies that fall into the categories of: Those that facilitate the sale of prescription drugs, including controlled substances, without requiring a valid prescription. Those that sell drugs from sources that are not licensed as a pharmacy in any US jurisdiction. Those that illegally source unregulated, unapproved prescription drugs from outside of the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Legal: General | Legal: Security | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Ads

Ars Technica reports Google has informed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they have been working on a new filtering system for videos, comments and communication on YouTube. It is believed that Google is working on these changes in order to make YouTube more kid or family friendly, by complying more with the FCC regulations for TV viewing. Google wrote to the FCC: Google Inc. ("Google"), by its attorneys, files these comments in response to the Notice of Inquiry ("NOI") issued by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") initiating a proceeding as requi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: YouTube & Video | Legal: Security | Search Features: Safety

Yet another privacy complaint has been filed against Google with the FTC, this time by the Electronic Privacy Information Center over Google's cloud computing services and related privacy and data security issues. While Google is the named party, the company is basically the stand-in for "the cloud" as a whole. (If you want to read the complaint, you can download it here [.pdf].) Here's the thrust of the complaint: EPIC hereby petitions the Federal Trade Commission to open an investigation into Google’s Cloud Computing Services, to determine the adequacy of the privacy and security safeg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Critics | Google: Docs & Spreadsheets | Google: Gmail | Legal: Security

On the heels of the tragic terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month, legal advocates in India are asking the country's High Court to demand that Google blur sensitive locations on Google Earth. The Times reports that the Indian petition says Google Earth "aids terrorists in plotting attacks" and offers "absolutely no control to prevent misuse or limit access" of the service, particularly access to photos of sensitive locations such as the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. In the wake of the attacks, there were many reports that the terrorists used high-tech tools -- including GPS -- to plan, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Earth | Google: Legal | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Security | Search & Society: General

Blogspot.com cited as the No. 1 host for malware from News.com reports Google's Blogger accounts "for nearly 2 percent of all malware hosts." Sophos, an antivirus vendor, published a report showing the state of malware injections and attacks throughout the web. Specifically, hackers can set up "malicious blogs" on the Blogger service, plus they can inject dangerous web links and content into Blogger blogs. The Google web search team takes malware attacks seriously. They have reviews in webmaster tools and they label malicious web sites in web search results. So isn't it ironic that Googl [...]

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Google Is A Malware Site (Says Yahoo) from TechCrunch reports a funny bug at Yahoo that accidentally made it look like Google's home page had Malware on it, based on the Yahoo SearchScan feature that was recently launched. A search for Astalavista at Yahoo returned what appeared to be a Google.com result in the 10th position. But in reality, Yahoo somehow mixed up the astalavista.ms URL with a Google.com URL, and since astalavista.ms had signs of Malware on it, it appeared that Google.com had malware on it. Here is a screen capture of what the search results originally looked like, when Ya [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Security | Search Features: Safety | Yahoo: Search

Yahoo Search has begun a partnership with McAfee, Inc. to provide SearchScan, which uses McAfee's SiteAdvisor technology to flag URLs it deems "risky" in the search results. Results are flagged with the type of danger below the title. This new feature is primarily aimed at preventing spyware and other malicious software from being downloaded on searchers' computers, as well as at preventing searchers from falling victim to sites that employ spammy email tactics. The Yahoo Search Blog provides more information. Below, more details on what types of pages are flagged and how site ow [...]

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Google mappers banned from U.S. bases from the LA Times reports the US Pentagon has banned Google StreetView photographers from accessing military bases. The ban came after StreetView photographs of Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio were found on Google Maps. Reportedly, Fort Sam Houston gave Google access to the base after a promise not to take photos. An anonymous person told the LA Times, "Unfortunately, Google didn't follow the rules." Google spokesman Larry Yu said, "against our policy, we did mistakenly access the base." Gary Ross, spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, said: The [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Legal: Privacy | Legal: Security

Hackers turn Google into vulnerability scanner from Techworld reports a group of hackers named Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) launched a search tool powered by Google to help see if your sites are vulnerable to a hacking attempt. The tool is named Goolag, and by typing in a domain name it may return site vulnerabilities. Techworld reports the tool makes "it easy for unskilled users to track down vulnerabilities and sensitive information on specific Web sites or broad Web domains." The tool uses the Google Custom Search engine and has a detailed specification on how it works. "It's no big sec [...]

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