Google Search Process Helped Iranian To Hack Computer Controlled Dam

An Iranian citizen used Google search procedure to hack a computer controlled dam, which worries the US government

An Iranian citizen charged with hacking the computer system that controlled New York dam used a readily offered Google search procedure to find out the vulnerable technology. The procedure called “Google dorking” is not as simple as a typical online search. Yet everyone with Internet and computer access can perform it by using some special techniques.

Federal authorities said hackers are increasing using this process to find vulnerabilities in the computer system throughout the United States. Hamid Firoozi, charged on March 24, 2016 by US prosecutors, unexpectedly entered into the system controlling the Bowman Avenue Dam in Rye Brook, New York, three years ago by using the process to find an unsecured computer that controlled the sluice gates of the dam and rest of the functions.

Hamid is alleged of hacking his way by using other methods after he identified the American dam. The search process has been present for around a decade, stated cyber safety experts, and is not neither always malicious nor illegal. White hat hackers and computer experts, who examine the computer system of an organization for vulnerabilities, mainly use it, said Michael Bazzel who used to serve the FBI as a computer crime investigator.

The criminal hackers also use the technique, says John Carlin, who serves as topmost national security lawyer of the US Department of Justice and assistant attorney general for national security while giving an interview. The American search company did not respond to requests for sharing views.

The Department of Justice recently alleged Mr. Hamid and half a dozen other Iranian hackers of launching an attack on the financial system of the United States. This was the first time that the American government has publicly indicted against hackers associated with government of Iran.

The seven defendants used to work for two private computer-safety companies that used to do work for the Government of Iran, including the leading military force of Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The accused are assumed to be inside Iran and could face arrests if they move out of the state. Wall Street Journal was neither able to reach them nor their barristers for comment.

In 2013, the attack faced by the dam startled the authorities of the US, giving rise to concerns that reached the Obama administration, current and former US officials earlier spoke to the Wall Street Journal.

The US dam is located 32 kilometers north of N.Y. City. It is often used for controlling floods. The measure underpinned that hackers were aiming at the American infrastructure.