It is absolutely scary what you can find on google.

[Dinner]

At another web site I visit one of the posters created a thread about how to use google's Operators in order to fine tune searches and ferret out things like MP3s, computer programs, and video files. There is also obvious uses for hackers but I'm not really interested in that.

In any event I just decided to try this out by typing in the names of people I used to know and in no time I was coming up with resumes, phone numbers, addresses, family pictures, and all sorts of other personal information. It is really scary the amount of information each and everyone of us has on the net. Even with just a user name to go on I'd bet it would be possible to ferret out real names, work addresses, home addresses, phone numbers, and other stuff I really wouldn't want some internet freak getting a hold of.

Now, I'm scared.

[Ecthy]

Fine, show me what you can find with just my username (This name is used by millions of geeks all over the planet). And even with my real name you couldn't find much.

[Adagio]

I've done this before with my name, but couldn't find anything except what everybody already knows (with information I gave to those sites, knowing that everybody could find that info)

[Whoha]

that is all public domain information anyway, if you can read about it in a phone book they delivered to you why is it bad that its on the internet?

[Ecthy]

Yup. some people are just overly paranoid.

[Dinner]

To find someone's real name you'd have to go through all the posts they used their user name on and hope they gave it away some where. With real names you just cross refrence the real name with the town their from (in your case Sterglitz).

You are right that there are a lot of nerds using Ecthelion though.

[Dinner]

http://jn0x00.com/A_Google_Hacking_Primer.243.0.html

an interesting link about Operators.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
Yup. some people are just overly paranoid.

I guess it is public but it was weird seeing names, adresses, phone numbers, work history, family photos, and lots of other things. By doing an index search you can also search people's hard drives who don't have fire walls so you can check out what's in "my documents" or "my music". I wouldn't want people reading my personal documents and that's why I have a fire wall but lots of people have always on connections but haven't bothered to set up a firewall.

[Ecthy]

you certainly wouldn't find MY machine's content, would you?

[Dinner]

Take for instance the command intitle:”index of /” "my music" which can be used to search for open indexes of people with the directory "my music" which google's bots have run across. That's kind of invasive.

Of course if you were looking for mp3s then you could type intitle:index of mp3 + *snoop*.mp3 fpr an index of mp3s of snoop doggy dog. It's all on google and it is utterly amazing. I wonder how it can be so easy to break the law. Surely, the RIAA has lobbied for some sort of regulation on search engines like google because lord knows they've lobbied for everything else.

[Ecthy]

could you find anything special with the info I sent you?

I've put in my name before, nothing of value turned up. the question is can you produce more than a normal google search result?

[Dinner]

I'm just learning this stuff now but I'm sure an expert could ferret out the right information if it was on the net.

[Ecthy]

The point is, I'm sure there's no info about me on the net apart from that which you'd inf via a normal google search. Footy league at my old school, maybe soem newspaper archive from the year I high school graduated. Beyond that, naught.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by Oerdin

http://jn0x00.com/A_Google_Hacking_Primer.243.0.html

an interesting link about Operators.

yes if you don't configure your stuff correctly you will get screwed.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Ecthelion
you certainly wouldn't find MY machine's content, would you?

There might be things you forgot about. Ever send a resume in to one of those job search places? Ever been a member of a club which has a web site or got a website after you left? There is stuff floating around all over the net.