Information gathering
Once the scope is finalized, it is time to move into the reconnaissance phase. During this phase, a pentester uses a number of publicly available resources to learn more about his or her target. This information can be retrieved from Internet sources such as:
- Forums
- Bulletin boards
- Newsgroups
- Articles
- Blogs
- Social networks
- Commercial or non-commercial websites
Additionally, the data can also be gathered through various search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN Bing, Baidu, and others. Moreover, an auditor can use the tools provided in Kali Linux to extract the network information about a target. These tools perform valuable data mining techniques to collect information through DNS servers, trace routes, the Whois database, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, personal information, and user accounts. As more information is gathered, the probability of conducting a successful penetration test is increased.
One area that is becoming more and more relevant is the use of the DarkWeb...