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Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Google Formally Launches Desktop Search

From Lockergnome: "Here’s a quick one: Google has taken its Desktop Search Tool out of beta and released a final version.

"Improvements include natively supporting non Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, for example, and no longer indexes password-protected files. The release version of Google Desktop Search also gives users the option of indexing secure Web pages. The tool can now search the contents of Adobe PDF, music, and video files, the company says."

In case you missed this part earlier, we posted this info on the security issues:

"PC World's Tom Spring has an interesting piece on a potentital security threat he uncovered using Goggle Desktop. He wrote, "Google Desktop Search might just be too good. Using the new software, I was able to bypass user names and passwords that secure Web-based e-mail programs and view personal messages sent and received on public PCs. Using Google's new software on a shared computer at the Google booth at the Digital Life trade show floor I was able to easily search for, find, and read private Yahoo e-mail sent on the computer by previous users earlier in the day.

"Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products, told me she wasn't surprised. 'This is not a bug, rather a feature,' she says. Google always intended people to be able to index and search Web-based e-mail viewed and composed on PC, she says. Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person, she says. Whether or not Google intended this, I take great pause at knowing any e-mail I write or read on a PC with Google Desktop Search could be called up and read by a complete stranger."

# Permalink Posted at 7:00 AM 2 comments Email this Link

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I have tried to hold my comments ... but this one really pushes it.

Just how often do you use "public" terminals? Assuming that you do ... do you scan for keystroke recorders ... directory mirrors (such as temp directories, etc)? No??? Then WHY do you expect anything you enter onto the net from a public terminal to be secure?

*****

Back when the net was kinda new ... this html stuff was just getting started ... yea, THAT long ago ...

Anyway ... in that job, we were early users of e-mail. We were told that ANYTHING we sent or received by e-mail could end up on the front page of the New York Times , and to act accordingly. Since I was working within the Federal Government, and the Freedom of Information Act included electronic mail, I quickly learned that I really shouldn't bother sending stuff I didn't want attributed to me in the public.

To further amplify my point, I installed a simple packet sniffer onto one workstation to troubleshoot a network overload problem. I was able to call a friend in another building on the campus, and tell him that his print job had just finished ... and he should hot foot it over to the printer before this other big job covered up his stuff. He first thought I had a camera over his desk, but it was just a simple observation of packets.

What does all this mean? If it is connected to the world, it can be seen by others. If your activities don't lend themselves to public examination, perhaps you need to reconsider connecting to the public net at all. IT WON'T BE PRIVATE .

So ... to hammer on a company that produces a tool that shows that your data really isn't secure ... well, that's shooting the messenger.

You really can't put your hands over your eyes and announce to the world that "You can't see me", and expect the world to ignore you (or your data).

Sigh ... I really wasn't going to let this turn into a rant ... and it really isn't directed at any one individual ... it's just that we need to THINK; not wish and then grumble and complain when others don't live within our dream-world limitations.

# posted by Anonymous 4:58 PM

I never use public terminal, but I have seen a huge increase in use from people who should know better. At every Admiral's Club for example, the free PCs are always taken. Guys in high end uits are checking their email over these units.

This past week my company hosted a huge conference and we set up a Cyber Cafe with 20 or so laptops people could use to surf the web and check email. You would not believe the number of people who left their IM clients signed in, their logins saved on these PCs. My IT team wiped these machines down and actually wiped the hard drives clean before returning them to the sponsor. What if we had just boxed up the machines?

I think the public terminal thing is a much bigger issue now that people have web-based email accounts.

# posted by Alice 9:48 AM

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