What is footprinting and reconnaissance?

Footprinting is the gathering and recording of information about a target or targets. The information gathered includes but is not limited to names, addresses, phone numbers, business partners, products used, and personal connections, to name a few. Footprinting is primarily a passive task as opposed to reconnaissance, which is more active in nature. Reconnaissance, sometimes known as active footprinting, is the active scanning and probing of targets. We will get into more detail about scanning in the next chapter. In the meantime, let’s continue to look at what information is being gathered.

Once a target has been established, it is time to gather information, and we start with the searching the Internet. As a research tool, the internet knows no bounds, offering limitless information about any topic. However, with this much information, we can be quickly overwhelmed; how do we find the information we need and how do we know the information...