Social Engineering in IT Security: Tools, Tactics, and Techniques

5	Research and Reconnaissance

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.

—Matthew 7:7, The Bible

Once you have put together your project plan, scoped the social engineering test, and obtained all relevant authorizations, you can move on to the research and reconnaissance phase. This phase involves collecting as much information as possible about your target within the timeframe and budget you have allocated (which is never enough—you can always do more!). The success of your social engineering test relies heavily on the research and reconnaissance phase as you will use the information collected during this phase to build a targeted and convincing attack scenario for your test.

Sometimes this activity is all that clients require—rather ...