Footprinting, the first step in ethical hacking, refers to the process of collecting inform ation

about a target netw ork and its environm ent. Using footprinting you can find various ways to
intrude into the target organization's network system. It is considered ‫״‬m ethodological" because
critical inform ation is sought based on a previous discovery. Once you begin the footprinting
process in a m ethodological manner, you w ill obtain the blueprint of the security profile of the
target organization. Here the term "b lu e p rin t" is used because the result that you get at the end
of footprinting refers to the unique system profile of the target organization. There is no single m
ethodology fo r footprinting as you can trace inform ation in several routes. However, this
activity is im portant as all crucial inform ation needs to be gathered before you begin hacking.
Hence, you should carry out the footprinting precisely and in an organized manner.

You can collect inform ation about the target organization through the means of footprinting in
four steps:

1. Collect basic inform ation about the target and its network

2. Determine the operating system used, platform s running, web server versions, etc.

3. Perform techniques such as Whois, DNS, netw ork and organizational queries

4. Find vulnerabilities and exploits for launching attacks

Furtherm ore, we will discuss how to collect basic inform ation, determ ine operating system of
target com puter, platform s running, and web server versions, various methods of footprinting,
and how to find and exploit vulnerabilities in detail.