Search engines aren’t just for finding Web content, they can also be valuable tools for security research.

At Black Hat 2010, researchers from Stach and Liu released Google and Bing tools called GoogleDiggity and BingDiggity. Those tools enable researchers to leverage those search engines to find security vulnerabilities in websites and applications. For Black Hat 2011, the researchers are back and this time they’re expanding their tools providing new capabilities to find and indentify security risk with the help of search engines.

“This year we’re adding a whole host of tools including a Windows desktop application as well as an iPhone app,” Stach and Liu security researcher Francis Brown said.

Brown explained that the new applications will enable users to plug in the website they want to monitor for hack alerts. The applications will then provide pop-up alerts when something happens in a security feed.

“So now it’s easier than ever to protect yourself against some of these risk exposures,” Brown said.

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