Rolling out what it’s calling a “street view for cyberspace,” Censys—a tech startup based on technology developed at the university—has launched a commercially available version of its internet-wide scanning tool. Based on technology developed in the lab of computer science and engineering professor J. Alex Halderman, Censys continuously scans the internet, analyzing every publicly visible server and device. It uses the data that comes back to create a dynamic, searchable snapshot of the entire internet. Censys is designed to be a cybersecurity defense tool for IT experts working to secure large networks, which are composed of a constantly changing array of devices ranging from servers to smartphones and internet-of-things devices. “Network security doesn’t have to be black magic,” Halderman said. “So much of security practice is based on untested assumptions, but in fact security can be quantified and studied the same way we use data to study human health.”
(Censys)
