[HIB]Google, Bing: A hacker's best friends

Security experts long ago noticed that powerful search engines like Google could be used as effective tools for ferreting out sensitive data about individuals. In past years, security researchers such as Johnny Long were able to show how advanced Google search queries and features like Google Code Search could make it easy to identify vulnerable systems online. Sadly, malicious hackers and organized crime groups appear to have learned those lessons better than IT admins. Speaking to a packed audience at the annual Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas on Friday, Rob Ragan and Francis Brown, of consulting firm Stach & Liu, said that there is ample evidence that organized online criminal groups were leveraging Google's various search features to do reconnaissance on Web servers, identifying and catologuing those that are vulnerable to attack.

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