Who’s Googling You?

There seems to be nothing that we can’t Google. Probably one of the greatest and most useful tools that anyone online has for finding information. Google has really transformed the digital landscape.

Google’s search engine, is good. Really good. And might be better than most companies think, as this interesting article points out…

Google Hacking (loosely defined)

What it is: Using search engines to find intellectual property. It’s Google intel: The researcher uses targeted Web searches to find bits and pieces of information that, when put together, form a picture of an organization’s strategy. Unlike, say, launching a SQL injection attack, doing competitive intelligence using public sources is quite legal.

For instance, the top hit on a search for “GENERAL MOTORS” “NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION” was a PDF from a credit-rating company with poorly redacted information that could be easily viewed by pasting the text into another document. (Oops!)

The most important quote from the article, that everyone should be aware of, is this. “If it’s on Google, it’s all legal.”

Here’s a link to the full article.