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The NSA's Own Guide To Google Hacking and Other Internet Research

Posted by timothy on from the summer-reading-list dept.

Wired has published a book review of sorts of a freely downloadable book called Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research. If that title came from O'Reilly, Apress, or other big name in tech-publishing, it might be perfectly nice but less interesting. Instead, it was prepared as an internal guide for the NSA, and came to public attention through a FOIA request by MuckRock. (See this video interview with MuckRock's Michael Morisy at this year's SXSW.) The version that's been released is several years old. From Wired's report: "Although the author's name is redacted in the version released by the NSA, Muckrock's FOIA indicates it was written by Robyn Winder and Charlie Speight. A note the NSA added to the book before releasing it under FOIA says that the opinions expressed in it are the authors', and not the agency's. ... Lest you think that none of this is new, that Johnny Long has been talking about this for years at hacker conferences and in his book Google Hacking, you’d be right. In fact, the authors of the NSA book give a shoutout to Johnny, but with the caveat that Johnny’s tips are designed for cracking — breaking into websites and servers. 'That is not something I encourage or advocate,' the author writes." (Hat tip to ThinkGeek's Jacob Rose.)

10 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. How about a link to the downloadable book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is that really too much to ask for? Sheesh.

    1. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by CanHasDIY · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/Untangling_the_Web.pdf

      --
      An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
    2. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

      I didn't say you were paranoid, you must have imagined that.

    3. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by Ashenkase · · Score: 2

      Wow, thank you for untangling the porn web.

      You must have done "extensive" research.

    4. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't expect miracles - a quick peek shows a crappy-quality B&W PDF, (despite the file size). A pretty epub it's not.

      So, it's just like an Amazon Kindle book?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    5. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by X0563511 · · Score: 2

      It's only paranoia if they aren't actually out to get you.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    6. Re:How about a link to the downloadable book? by An+Ominous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      All PDF readers have their exploits, no reason you can't make one document that targets them all. That's why I trained myself to read PDF in binary. Yes, obviously it's a bit challenging but there's something immensely satisfying about being able to visualize the document based on the raw input and, until the NSA gets into wet-ware hacking, it's the one reader technology that's guaranteed to be perfectly sa.... MUST. INFILTRATE. PUTIN. ADMINISTRATION.

  2. This is not some sort of definitive guide by daveschroeder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It was a guide for open source research, published by one office from 1997 to 2007, and not updated in the last six years. Remember that before you rail on it.

  3. Re:Scribd content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How is a link to a government document you have to "log in with Facebook" to read "informative"?

  4. Re:Scribd content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Stop using scribd for fuck's sake. It's a horrible web site.

    Just link to the actual PDF: http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/Untangling_the_Web.pdf