Search Engines Give Hackers a New Tool.

The article reports that the growing use of search engines to spread worms or find vulnerable IT targets poses a threat to companies that aren't careful about the data they make available on the Web, according to IT managers and analysts. The cautionary note follows the February 17, 2005 release of a new variant of the MyDoom mass-mailing worm, which was programmed to spread itself by harvesting e-mail addresses from search engines such as Google, Alta-Vista and Lycos. The latest worm was similar to MyDoom-O, an earlier variant that flooded search engines with automated e-mail address search requests last July--briefly disrupting the availability of Google Inc.'s Web site. In addition, in December a worm called Sanity used Google to identify and attack vulnerable systems by looking for specific text on Web sites powered by an opensource bulletin board application. The appearance of such worms indicates that "Google hacking"--a term coined to describe attacks involving the use of search engines--is becoming a potent threat to IT security.