Creating a sock puppet

There are many techniques and tools that are commonly used by ethical hackers and penetration testers to gather information about their various target sources on the internet. When performing passive reconnaissance and using OSINT strategies and techniques, you’ll need to ensure you do not make direct contact with the targeted organization and that your real identity is not revealed during the process.

Sock puppet is a term that’s used within the cybersecurity industry, especially among penetration testers. It is simply a misrepresentation of an individual, such as creating an entire fake identity or persona with the intent to infiltrate an online community to gather information.

While pretending to be someone else is unlawful, hackers always create a fake identity on the internet when gathering information about their targets. By creating a fake persona on an online platform such as a social media website, no one knows the true identity...