Google Dorking or Legal Hacking: From the CIA Compromise to Your Cameras at Home, We Are Not As Safe As We Think

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of Google Dorking (“Dorking”): an underestimated, overlooked computer-crime technique utilized by hackers, cyberstalkers, and cybercriminals alike. Google Dorking is the specialized use of the Google Search engine which can be used to uncover sensitive data unintentionally exposed to the public online. Dorking can be beneficial and harmless when used by innocent researchers, journalists, and curious users. But it can be incredibly harmful if utilized by malicious actors. Dorking is behind notorious and infamous computer crimes that appear vastly different on the surface, such as a sextortion case involving over a hundred women including Miss Teen USA, an infamous hack of the Bowman Avenue Dam in New York, an intelligence failure that killed over 30 CIA assets and compromised around 70% of CIA operations internationally, and countless cases where legal officials, celebrities, politicians, families, and the average person alike have fallen victim. Anyone with access to the internet can “Google Dork”; the law currently fails to address the legality of this act or recognize it in the justice system. No one is nearly as safe as they think they are.

Keywords: cybersecurity, cybercrime, google, Search engine, Google search, Technology, technology law, internet law, privacy law, internet and privacy