Understanding Passive Reconnaissance

As more people and organizations are connecting to the largest network in the world, the internet is becoming a massive storage medium. Lots of people are uploading various types of data on many websites and online platforms. While the internet is known as the information super-highway, enabling people around the world to share information and collaborate, it has become a medium for storing data about people, organizations, systems, and networks. Such information can be leveraged by adversaries with malicious intent to plan future cyber-attacks on a target. As an aspiring ethical hacker, it’s important to understand how adversaries are able to discover and leverage publicly available information to create a profile of their target and improve their strategies and techniques in their cyber operations.

During the course of this chapter, you will learn about the fundamentals and importance of passive reconnaissance and the best practices...