The most established technology related to tracking social media comes from Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) platform, which has been scanning the Internet using techniques based on patterns and probability for more than a decade.

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Google, an internet giant that has been scanning and digitising books for inclusion in its search engine, now offers thousands of books that are in the public domain free on mobile phones.

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Earlier this year Granite set up an Internet site and bought a cheque-scanning machine to cut processing costs and help with marketing.

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They can use scanning tools -- such as the ISS Internet Scanner -- to scan for it.

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She'll move quickly from talk of port scanning (the act of looking at what pathways into an Internet server are active) to the intricacies of when a police officer can and cannot stop a person for a search.

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He then used the scanning tool NMAP to dig up thousands of vulnerable machines visible on the Internet.

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Analysts at firms including Symantec (nasdaq: SYMC - news - people ) say an increased amount of traffic on TCP Port 445 may be the result of potential intruders scanning computers for weaknesses and that similar scans have preceded the release of other Internet worms.

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