Hackers have long use Google"s search services for dubious and illegal purposes; using specially crafted queries users of Google can find a large amount of sensitive data, ranging from credit card details to passwords. Neowin recently looked at how easy it was to find sensitive data vai Google"s search facilities. However, Whitehat UK, a security group, is reporting that hackers are now using Google to see what is being copied on corporate photocopiers.
Jason Hart at Whitehat UK remarked to Zdnet that "You don"t have to be a genius to do this". The main problem arises from Google"s extensive indexing of sites, and the cache function which stores data long after it"s been removed from a website. The trick with photocopiers is another hack in a long line of Google exploitations.
Google"s advanced services, often incredibly useful for users, are often a pain for server administrators and organizations. Hart advises companies to check what data Google stores on them, and if there was anything sensitive being displayed to ask Google to remove it.