Google Dork Before:2015, The Abuse of a Useful Technique

Google dorks are a set of highly advanced searching techniques used for Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) purposes. They are designed to ferret out security vulnerabilities.

But Google Dork Before:2015 was a nightmare for security agencies as hackers took advantage of Google dorking’s ability to expose security loopholes in a site or domain that a simple search cannot.

Let’s find out in this Innocams blog post the fascinating story of Google Dorks.

Relevant Technical Terms and Their Meanings

Technical Term	Meaning
Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)	The technique of gathering and analysing publicly available information.
Google dorks	Techniques to gather specific or sensitive information on the Internet utilising advanced operators.
Dorking	The process of using special characters or commands to refine and pinpoint search results.
Search operator	Search operators are special commands used to narrow down results of search engines queries. They can bring out results that ordinary search terms cannot.
Google dorking (also, Google hacking)	The process of gleaning sensitive data, which ordinary search terms cannot, by utilising Google dorks.
Actor	An individual or a group that carries out a cyber attack is known as an actor in hacking parlance.
Hacking	Hacking is illegally accessing or manipulating computer systems, data or network for malicious purposes.
Eavesdropping	A kind of cyber attack in which a hacker secretly intercepts communication between others.
Passive Attack	A cyber attack in which a hacker eavesdrops without altering the data.
Cybercrime	Cybercrime is the utilisation of computers to carry out illegal activities like spreading hate, identity theft, frauds etc.
Cyberterrorism	A cybercrime that is politically motivated and aims at disrupting administrative systems and spreading mass panic.
Industrial espionage	An illegal act of stealing a company’s sensitive information for competitive advantage.
Identity theft	An act of illegally stealing a person’s personal information and using it to get loans, credits etc.
Cyberstalking	Cyberstalking means continually harassing or threatening someone, using electronic communication systems. For example, sending him threatening emails etc.
Exploits	In hacking, exploits are codes cybercriminals use to gain illegal access to systems to utilise its security vulnerabilities for malicious purposes.
Penetration testing (also, pentesting)	It is a planned and ethical cyber attack that simulates a real hacking method to test and fix security vulnerabilities in a system or network.

What are Google Dorks

Dorking in online search means refining and pinpointing search results by using some special search characters or commands. 

Google dorks are a set of such special search commands that can get you results which ordinary search terms cannot extract. 

Examples of Google Dorks

Google dorks are special search operators that narrow down search results to specific information, which general search terms cannot. Here are some Google dorks that are vastly used.

Google dork	Action	Example
site:	Provides a list of all URLs of a website that has been indexed.	site:innocams.com
inurl:	Returns a specific term in the URL.	inurl:register.php
intext:	Returns web pages with certain strings or characters in their texts.	intext: “Google Dork”
cache:	Finds out the cached version of a site.	cache:innocams.com

Google Dorks and Hacking

Google dork before:2015, was used by hackers to exploit security vulnerabilities by using special search terms.

You must understand one thing clearly, Google dorks, as such, are not a hacking tool per se. They are perfectly legitimate methods that security people use to find out and fix vulnerability in the systems or network. 

But hackers gleefully took advantage of Google’s outstanding crawling capabilities to find out security vulnerabilities and conduct cyber attacks for malicious purposes.

Using Google dorks, hackers can extract the following information:

• Passwords and usernames.
• Sensitive documents.
• Sensitive personal information.
• Email addresses.
• Domain vulnerabilities.
• Identifiable personal financial information.

Such information, at wrong hands, can create a security chaos. Actors use Google dorking methods to identify unprotected files and system flaws. They then launch their attack and penetrate the systems to extract sensitive data.

The Use of Google Dorks

These useful searching techniques have positive as well as negative and abusive utilisations. We will now take a quick look at them.

The benefits of Google Dorks

Google dorking yields several benefits if used legitimately, without overstepping legal boundaries and Google’s terms and conditions. Some of these benefits of Google hacking are listed below.

1. Fixing security vulnerabilities: Security people use these useful search terms to identify security gaps in websites or systems and plug the loopholes

2. Research purposes: Researchers may use Google hacking methods to find out precise information which general search queries cannot provide.

3. Investigative purposes: Security agencies and journalists use Google dorks to uncover miscreants.

4. Industrial Use: Businesses use Google dorks to check their systems and fix weaknesses in them.

Abuse of Google Dorks

In August 2022, Three top American security agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), issued a warning against the misuse of Google dorks by cybercrime actors and asked agencies to safeguard their sites against abusive use of Google dorks.

Google dork before:2015 sends shivers down the spines of security agencies like the FBI due to their glaring abuse by cybercriminals. These people misused these useful Google operators to pull illegal jobs of the following types. 

1. Cyberterrorism

In cyberterrorism, computer systems of government and financial institutions are hacked to access sensitive information with a view to spreading panic, stopping communication or siphoning off funds for terror purposes.

2. Identity Theft

Cyber miscreants may use Google hacking to extract personal information of unsuspecting people and use it to obtain loans, credits etc.

3. Industrial Espionage

In this cybercrime, hackers obtain sensitive information and trade secrets of a company and use it for competitive advantages. Sometimes, unethical management of a company hires hackers to get such information from its rival companies and at times, hackers get this info and sell it to the rivals of a company. 

4. Eavesdropping or sniffing

In this type of illegal use of Google dorks, cybercriminals use exploits to illegally access electronic communication systems and listen to communication between others to obtain secret information for criminals purposes.

5. Cyberstalking

Here cybercriminals repeatedly use electronic communication systems to harass or threaten others. For example, repeated emails are sent to threaten and intimidate others for various criminal purposes. 

These types of cybercrimes were rife with Google dork before:2015.

Ethical Use of Google Dorking

Google dorking is a powerful technique to identify security vulnerabilities in a system or network. But it should be used ethically and responsibly.

Accessing restricted or sensitive information without permission or authorisation may lead to nasty legal consequences. The same goes for using exploits.

Security professionals use Google hacking for penetration testing to find and fix security flaws in systems and networks with a view to fixing them, not to use the gleaned information to commit cybercrimes. 

Google Dork Before:2015, Two Infamous Cases

Now we will recall two infamous cases where the malicious use of Google dorks threw the authorities out of kilter. Both cases occurred in the USA before 2015. 

One involved a sextortion attempt on a famous model and another resulted in the execution of 60 assets of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Google Dork Before:2015, The Cassidy Case

Cassidy Wolf is a famous American model who won Miss Teen USA beauty pageant in 2013. 

Wolf’s high school classmate Jared James Abrahams used Google dorking to illegally obtain nude photographs of the model and tried to sexually abuse her.

Following Wolf’s complaint, the FBI launched an investigation into the matter and in September 2013, Abrahams surrendered to the FBI and in March 2014, he was sent to federal prison on a 18-month jail term.

During the course of investigation, The FBI agents came to know that Abrahams used this Google Hacking technique to obtain vulnerable photographs of at least 150 women apart from Wolf.

This sextortion case is one of the glaring examples of how a seriously useful technique can be abused to commit heinous criminal activities.

Google dork before:2015 witnessed innumerable privacy violation cases like this.

Google Dork Before:2015, The CIA Disaster

If Wolf’s case is shocking, what happened to the CIA due to the malicious use of Google hacking was unbelievably catastrophic. 

Iranian Intelligence agents hacked into the website through which CIA communicated with its spies and assets (a spy who resides in a foreign country or penetrates a target organisation and obtains secret information and sends them to his employer).

Experts opined that the Iranian Intelligence used Google dorks to penetrate the CIA site.

After obtaining sensitive information, Iranian operatives executed 30 CIA assets in 2011. Not only that, they supplied the hacked information to China who then arrested and executed another 30 American assets between 2011 and 2012. 

At least 70% of the global CIA network was compromised in that case of hacking, which is considered one of the biggest fiasco in the CIA’s history.

How to Protect Yourself

Once again, the use of Google hacking is neither illegal nor unethical. It is a useful tool security professionals use to test their systems and fix security vulnerability in them. 

However, hackers and other cybercriminals take advantage of these advanced search operators to gain access to sensitive data illegally. 

And the threat continues.

So you must protect your sensitive data from cybercriminals and the abuse of Google hacking. Here are some steps you can take to safeguard yourself:

1. Conduct penetration testing and vulnerability scan to identify and fix security loopholes in your system before hackers do it. Always try to stay one-step ahead of them.
2. Go for IP-based restrictions and use strong passwords.
3. Prevent search engines from indexing sensitive real estate on your site. Use robots.txt and meta tags.
4. Implement a two-factor authentication method. 
5. Regularly conduct security audits and try to improve your system’s overall security efficiency continuously. 
6. Use encryption to protect sensitive data like username, passwords etc.

Conclusion

Google dorks are a set of advanced search operators that help users find out useful information hidden in normal search queries.

Security personnel use these useful search techniques to test their systems’ security efficacy and to fix security vulnerabilities, if any. 

But Google dork before:2015 witnessed severe abuse of these special search techniques by hackers and cybercriminals. 

To safeguard your site from this grossly unethical use of Google dorking you need to check your systems for loopholes and plug them before hackers penetrate your sensitive data areas.

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