Kashmir Hill has a disturbing follow-up to a report she did about how someone easily hacked into a baby monitor and said lewd things that the baby and homeowner could hear.
Shodan crawls the Internet looking for devices, many of which are programmed to answer. It has found cars, fetal heart monitors, office building heating-control systems, water treatment facilities, power plant controls, traffic lights and glucose meters. A search for the type of baby monitor used by the Gilberts reveals that more than 40,000 other people are using the IP cam–and may be sitting ducks for creepy hackers.
“Google crawls for websites. I crawl for devices,” says John Matherly, the tall, goateed 29-year-old who released Shodan in 2009. He named it after the villainous sentient computer in the videogame System Shock. “It’s a reference other hackers and nerds will understand.”
Read more on Forbes.
And yes, Shodan actually has a privacy policy. But only, it seems, for those using their search engine. Not for those whose devices might be exposed as sitting targets.