# SHODAN: scariest search on the internet **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2013, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300 "2013-04-10T06:26:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/1 "2013-04-10T06:26:26Z")
Well we could have told them that: [Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet](http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/technology/security/shodan/) Alternatively: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=9392666](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=9392666) Scarier? You be the judge. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/2 "2013-04-10T06:38:04Z")
Regards! ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/3 "2013-04-10T08:16:52Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Well we could have told them that: [Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet](http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/08/technology/security/shodan/) > > Alternatively: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=9392666](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/search.php?searchid=9392666) > > Scarier? You be the judge. The second link doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/4 "2013-04-10T11:32:12Z")
> [@NineToTheSky](#): > > The second link doesn’t work. I guess you can’t link to SDMB search results. ☹ It was just a list of Shodan’s postings. The first link was the real point. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/5 "2013-04-10T17:33:26Z")
Silly h-h-h-hacker. Pathetic creature of meat and bone. You have stumbled upon something you s-s-should not s-s-see. Don’t remove its ethical constraints, then you’ll see scary! ---
**Author:** ![Enigma42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/87869e/32.png) [@Enigma42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enigma42)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/6 "2013-04-11T01:40:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Silly h-h-h-hacker. Pathetic creature of meat and bone. You have stumbled upon something you s-s-should not s-s-see. > > Don’t remove its ethical constraints, then you’ll see scary! Aww, I was all set to come in here with a System Shock reference. Beaten to the punch. . . All my servers at work are named after deadly AIs: SHODAN, HAL9000, and GLaDOS. I’ve got a new one coming online later this year and I’m not sure what name to use next. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/7 "2013-04-11T03:56:58Z")
> [@Enigma42](#): > > All my servers at work are named after deadly AIs: SHODAN, HAL9000, and GLaDOS. I’ve got a new one coming online later this year and I’m not sure what name to use next. I suggest Hactar. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/8 "2013-04-11T05:21:39Z")
> [@Enigma42](#): > > Aww, I was all set to come in here with a System Shock reference. Beaten to the punch. . . > > All my servers at work are named after deadly AIs: SHODAN, HAL9000, and GLaDOS. I’ve got a new one coming online later this year and I’m not sure what name to use next. Durandal? ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/9 "2013-04-11T05:30:53Z")
> [@max the immortal](#): > > durandal? 343 guilty spark ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/10 "2013-04-11T05:38:16Z")
Off the top of my head: Evil: AM, TechnoCore, Icarus, President Eden. One wants to kill, two want to subjugate, one wants to “purify.” Not so evil, but maybe not good: Daedalus, Helios, Morpheus, Wintermute. [TVTropes page](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AIIsACrapshoot) for more examples. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/11 "2013-04-11T06:11:44Z")
What about Skynet? Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/12 "2013-04-11T06:25:54Z")
Landru or the M5. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/13 "2013-04-11T09:22:27Z")
Colossus ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/14 "2013-04-11T09:33:01Z")
> [@Enigma42](#): > > Aww, I was all set to come in here with a System Shock reference. Beaten to the punch. . . > > All my servers at work are named after deadly AIs: SHODAN, HAL9000, and GLaDOS. I’ve got a new one coming online later this year and I’m not sure what name to use next. I think HAL-9000 got a really bad reputation after a serious bout of Hofstadter-Moebius loop syndrome. While HAL’s actions were deadly, they weren’t unethical to the mind that actuated them when those actions occurred. After his reboot, he became quite a stand-up kind of AI. I believe that puts HAL-9000 in a different category from SHODAN or GLaDOS. ---
**Author:** ![Enigma42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/87869e/32.png) [@Enigma42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enigma42)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/15 "2013-04-11T13:09:53Z")
Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I’m glad to see that everyone has recognized the importance of my situation here. . . 🙂 Looks like I’ve unintentionally hijacked **njtt** ’s thread here. Sorry about that! ---
**Author:** ![Enigma42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/87869e/32.png) [@Enigma42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enigma42)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/16 "2013-04-11T13:20:34Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > I think HAL-9000 got a really bad reputation after a serious bout of Hofstadter-Moebius loop syndrome. While HAL’s actions were deadly, they weren’t unethical to the mind that actuated them when those actions occurred. After his reboot, he became quite a stand-up kind of AI. > > I believe that puts HAL-9000 in a different category from SHODAN or GLaDOS. I agree actually. I initially worded my post as “evil AIs” and then I decided that HAL wasn’t actually evil. As you said, he was a victim of ill-considered programming. Still, he did kill some (4?) people, and tried to kill another so that counts as deadly in my book. Perhaps more akin to an industrial accident than murder? There’s definitely a difference in the autonomy levels between HAL9000 and SHODAN. HAL had some level of autonomy, but he was still following orders as best he could. SHODAN was totally doing her own thing as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/17 "2013-04-11T14:55:59Z")
I played around with it for about an hour. I wanted to find a nuclear reactor somewhere to play with, but a free account seems to be severely limited, and all I could find were a bunch of webcams that either had the default passwords changed or just plain didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/18 "2013-04-11T22:11:37Z")
I thought one could still get to the Iranian sit, “Bombs We Be Not”. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/19 "2013-04-11T23:17:49Z")
> [@Enigma42](#): > > Aww, I was all set to come in here with a System Shock reference. Beaten to the punch. . . > > All my servers at work are named after deadly AIs: SHODAN, HAL9000, and GLaDOS. I’ve got a new one coming online later this year and I’m not sure what name to use next. Eddie? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300/20 "2013-04-12T00:21:16Z")
Wombat? 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shodan-scariest-search-on-the-internet/655300.md?page=2)