Censys, the new search engine for the Internet’s secrets

Censys is a search engine that scans the Internet searching for devices and return aggregate reports on how resources (i.e. Devices, websites, and certificates) are configured and deployed.

Censys daily scans of the IPv4 address space searching for any devices and collecting related information.

“Censys is a search engine that allows computer scientists to ask questions about the devices and networks that compose the Internet. Driven by Internet-wide scanning, Censys lets researchers find specific hosts and create aggregate reports on how devices, websites, and certificates are configured and deployed.” states the description on the Censys official website.

Censys, like Shodan, maintains a complete database of every device exposed on the Internet. It represents a privileged instrument for the hackers that have to search for a specific target and need to gather information on its configuration. At the same time, security experts could easily locate poorly protected devices exposed over the internet.

“We have found everything from ATMs and bank safes to industrial control systems for power plants. It’s kind of scary,” said Zakir Durumeric, the researcher leading the Censys project at the University of Michigan and inventor of ZMap.