Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

7.2. Online Information-Gathering Tools

As previously discussed, information gathering is a key aspect of social engineering. Not spending enough time on this point alone can and will lead to failure for the social engineer. Nowadays many tools are available to the social engineer that can help collect, catalog, and utilize the data that is collected.

These tools can literally change the way a social engineer views and uses data. No longer are social engineers limited to what they can find in routine searches; these tools open every resource on the Internet to them.

7.2.1. Maltego

Collecting and cataloging information is probably a weak point for many people. What if a tool existed that enabled you to perform dozens of searches specific to a domain, IP address, or even a person? What if it gave you the weightings of those findings, showing what was more likely to be important or not? What if this tool then had a GUI interface that showed everything in color-coded objects that you can export and utilize? On top of it all, what if a free version of this amazing tool was available?

Enter Maltego. Maltego is a social engineer's dream tool. This amazing tool is made by the guys at Paterva (www.paterva.com). Maltego has a community edition available for free download from their website, which is also included in every edition of BackTrack4. If you want to remove the limitations of the free edition—like the number of transforms you can run and saving data—spending around $600 will ...