Q: How does Google index the web?
A: Basically Google will follow every single link on every single website it finds.
Q: That's very interesting and all Craig, but why are you telling me this?
A: Think about it like this. Google doesn't discrimiate between things that should be on the web and things that shouldn't. It can't tell the difference between sensitive government material and a webpage about puppies.
Q: Go on...
A: That wasn't really a question but I'll continue anyway.
The upshot of this is that, say, if you accidentally place a link to a webcam, or your unprotected mp3 directory, or a list of passwords, or your company finances, or super secret scientific data then Google will index it and anybody who knows the right set of words to search for can find it again.
There are a few Google commands that are not very well known but are very useful for searching out highly specific data (I'm pretty lazy so I just grabbed the list from here:
All advanced commands are used in the form
Q:OK, I feel like more of a nerd now, but how do I use this?
A:Well, One of my personal favourite timewasters is finding online security cameras in random places around the world. Here are a bunch of interesting ones:
Arcminute Microkelvin Imager in Cambridge
A Supercomputer
Also a distillery with most of their cameras online:
Bottling Hall
Gift Shop
Entrance
Fermentation Room
There are thousands upon thousands of these things, looking over building sites, office blocks, television studios, shops, museums, factories, warehouses, the list is endless. And they're all just sitting completely unprotected on the internet. Here are a few google queries that will turn them up:
tilt intitle:"Live View / - AXIS" | inurl:view/view.shtml
intitle:snc-rz30 inurl:home/
(intext:"MOBOTIX M1" | intext:"MOBOTIX M10") intext:"Open Menu" Shift-Reload
You're not just limited to searching for cameras, mind! Say, for instance, you wanted to find a copy of 2unlimited's 1993 dance floor smash hit 'No Limit'. This would be a good search to make:
intitle:index.of "parent directory" mp3 2unlimited
And after a bit of clicking around what do we find but 2Unlimited - No Limit.mp3
Most of the information in this post came from this page, where you can also find links to pages full of passwords, online printer controls and much more, as well as a very thorough explanation of how to use Google effectively. Johnny Long (the owner of this site) quite literally wrote the book on Google hacking.
Q: Wow! you are awesome Craig, I love you
A: I love you too
A: Basically Google will follow every single link on every single website it finds.
Q: That's very interesting and all Craig, but why are you telling me this?
A: Think about it like this. Google doesn't discrimiate between things that should be on the web and things that shouldn't. It can't tell the difference between sensitive government material and a webpage about puppies.
Q: Go on...
A: That wasn't really a question but I'll continue anyway.
The upshot of this is that, say, if you accidentally place a link to a webcam, or your unprotected mp3 directory, or a list of passwords, or your company finances, or super secret scientific data then Google will index it and anybody who knows the right set of words to search for can find it again.
There are a few Google commands that are not very well known but are very useful for searching out highly specific data (I'm pretty lazy so I just grabbed the list from here:
All advanced commands are used in the form
operator:search termsite:operator instructs Google to restrict a search to a specific web site or domain. The web site to search must be supplied after the colon.filetype:operator instructs Google to search only within the text of a particular type of file. The file type to search must be supplied after the colon. Don't include a period before the file extension.link:operator instructs Google to search within hyperlinks for a search term.cache:operator displays the version of a web page as it appeared when Google crawled the site. The URL of the site must be supplied after the colon.intitle:operator instructs Google to search for a term within the title of a document.inurl:operator instructs Google to search only within the URL (web address) of a document. The search term must follow the colon.
Q:OK, I feel like more of a nerd now, but how do I use this?
A:Well, One of my personal favourite timewasters is finding online security cameras in random places around the world. Here are a bunch of interesting ones:
Arcminute Microkelvin Imager in Cambridge
A Supercomputer
Also a distillery with most of their cameras online:
Bottling Hall
Gift Shop
Entrance
Fermentation Room
There are thousands upon thousands of these things, looking over building sites, office blocks, television studios, shops, museums, factories, warehouses, the list is endless. And they're all just sitting completely unprotected on the internet. Here are a few google queries that will turn them up:
tilt intitle:"Live View / - AXIS" | inurl:view/view.shtml
intitle:snc-rz30 inurl:home/
(intext:"MOBOTIX M1" | intext:"MOBOTIX M10") intext:"Open Menu" Shift-Reload
You're not just limited to searching for cameras, mind! Say, for instance, you wanted to find a copy of 2unlimited's 1993 dance floor smash hit 'No Limit'. This would be a good search to make:
intitle:index.of "parent directory" mp3 2unlimited
And after a bit of clicking around what do we find but 2Unlimited - No Limit.mp3
Most of the information in this post came from this page, where you can also find links to pages full of passwords, online printer controls and much more, as well as a very thorough explanation of how to use Google effectively. Johnny Long (the owner of this site) quite literally wrote the book on Google hacking.
Q: Wow! you are awesome Craig, I love you
A: I love you too
