The various phases of hacking include reconnaissance, scanning, gaining access, maintaining access, and clearing tracks. The reconnaissance phase is the most important phase of a penetration test since this is when the ethical hacker or penetration tester conducts extensive research into gathering as much information about the target as possible. Furthermore, footprinting will help create a profile of the target, gathering profiling information such as running services, open ports, and operating systems.

We will now look at both reconnaissance and footprinting in more detail.