Reconnaissance is a set of processes and techniques used to gather and covertly discover information about a target system in cybersecurity. It is an essential step in exploring an area to steal confidential information and plays a key role in penetration testing. There are two main types of reconnaissance: active and passive reconnaissance.
Active reconnaissance is the process of collecting or retrieving information in a way where target systems can view your actions. It should be done by taking permission; otherwise, the victim could take severe actions against the hacker. This type of reconnaissance gathers information by interacting directly, so it helps to collect more useful data by notifying the owner about your activities.
Passive reconnaissance is the process of gathering information without interacting with the victim. It is an indirect approach to connect with your target. Passive reconnaissance is always dependent upon the visibly available data. You can use this technique for gathering information about any company’s technology or employees.
Reconnaissance generally follows seven steps:
- Collect initial information
- Determine the network range
- Identify active machines
- Find access points and open ports
- Fingerprint the operating system
- Discover services on ports
- Map the network.
During reconnaissance, an ethical hacker attempts to gather as much information about a target system as possible. The information gathered from reconnaissance may include network infrastructure, employee contact details, file permissions, running network services, OS platform, trust relationships, and user account information.
Reconnaissance is an important step in locating and stealing confidential information. In a proper recon, attackers would have access to detailed information. In this way, reconnaissance, in information security, is used for penetration testing.
