The internet has a lot of exploits, both good and bad, If you thought no one has access to your webcam, think again.
Shodan is a search engine that crawls the Internet looking for devices, many of which are programmed to answer, including cars, fetal heart monitors, office building heating-control systems, water treatment facilities, power plant controls, traffic lights and glucose meters.
A search for just printers brings you over 50,000 results, of printers, some easily accessible.
Shodan was released in 2009 by John Matherly. He named it after the villainous sentient computer in the video game System Shock. “It’s a reference other hackers and nerds will understand.”
Its now a tool for security researchers, academics, law enforcement and hackers looking for devices that shouldn’t be on the Internet or devices that are vulnerable to being hacked.
Shodan can be used to find webcams with security so low that you only needed to type an IP address into your browser to peer into people’s homes, security offices, hospital operating rooms, child care centers and drug dealer operations.
Matherly’s entire database has over 1.5 billion connected devices, no wonder cybersecurity firms, pay five figures annually to access it.
In the wrong hands, Shodan poses a threat especially to people who have no knowledge of online security.
There are security cams, lights, heating and cooling systems online that could be easily controlled by a hacker.
A slight search game me webcams gave me a number of video servers, some of which could be logged in with default username and password.
Am just imagining what pervy hackers can do with the search engine.
Credit: Forbes
