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Cyber search engine Shodan exposes industrial control systems to new risks
I was clearing out old newspapers the other day. The same night that I read this, NOVA had an episode about exactly this issue.
KPBS: NOVA: Cyberwar Threat
Cyberwar Threat
Investigations
Cyber search engine Shodan exposes industrial control systems to new risks
By Robert O'Harrow Jr. June 3, 2012
It began as a hobby for a teenage computer programmer named John Matherly, who wondered how much he could learn about devices linked to the Internet.
After tinkering with code for nearly a decade, Matherly eventually developed a way to map and capture the specifications of everything from desktop computers to network printers to Web servers.
He called his fledgling search engine Shodan, and in late 2009 he began asking friends to try it out. He had no inkling it was about to alter the balance of security in cyberspace. ... “I just thought it was cool,” said Matherly, now 28.
Matherly and other Shodan users quickly realized they were revealing an astonishing fact: Uncounted numbers of industrial control computers, the systems that automate such things as water plants and power grids, were linked in, and in some cases they were wide open to exploitation by even moderately talented hackers.
Cyber search engine Shodan exposes industrial control systems to new risks
By Robert O'Harrow Jr. June 3, 2012
It began as a hobby for a teenage computer programmer named John Matherly, who wondered how much he could learn about devices linked to the Internet.
After tinkering with code for nearly a decade, Matherly eventually developed a way to map and capture the specifications of everything from desktop computers to network printers to Web servers.
He called his fledgling search engine Shodan, and in late 2009 he began asking friends to try it out. He had no inkling it was about to alter the balance of security in cyberspace. ... “I just thought it was cool,” said Matherly, now 28.
Matherly and other Shodan users quickly realized they were revealing an astonishing fact: Uncounted numbers of industrial control computers, the systems that automate such things as water plants and power grids, were linked in, and in some cases they were wide open to exploitation by even moderately talented hackers.