Hacking is the process of exploiting the system to collect data and gaining access to control over the computer network security systems. Hacking can be legal and illegal. The legal hacker breaches the system and collects data from the system, but these hackers have the authority to access the system. On the other hand, illegal hackers also do the same process and utilize the same tools and techniques, but they don’t have the authority to breach the system.
To learn more about hacking, you can join the Ethical Hacking Online Course at FITA Academy to have a comprehensive understanding of hacking techniques and strategies and learn from the comfort of your home.
Now, we shall discuss what is Footprinting in ethical hacking and the types of Footprinting in detail.
The footprint is gathering data or information from the target system. It is the process of implementing the cyberattacks, and to have access to the target system, the hackers utilize the techniques to breach the system. Now, we shall discuss types of Footprinting in hacking.
Active Footprinting: It is the action of getting direct access to the target device. With active Footprinting, the hackers breach the target system to collect the system’s data.
Passive Footprinting: Passive Footprinting is the method of collecting data from the internet, in which the user unintentionally leaves the data when they use the internet. It mainly happens while Searching on google, a search on jobs websites, social media accounts, a search on recruitment boards, etc. In such cases, we unexpectedly leave our personal details like our name, email, location-based information, etc.
Now, we shall discuss how hackers collect details from footprint sources:
Social Media
In the world of technology, everyone uses social media platforms and shares many personal details about them. In such cases, hackers gain access to sensitive data and create new IDs to portray that as a real account. The purpose of making this phony account is to receive friend requests and gather sensitive information.
Job websites
In many job posts, the company would have shared their confidential details. For example, a company would have posted a job opening for an Apache Webserver Administrator. Hackers have access to this job description, and they could predict that the organization utilizes Apache Webserver. So, this leads to the possibility of hacking the organization’s system.
Google and other search engines can perform more powerful searches than one might expect or have experienced. Hackers and attackers can use it to perform so-called Google hacking. When basic search algorithms are combined with sophisticated operations, the results might be disastrous.
Google can reveal a lot of sensitive information that shouldn’t be revealed. “Google Dorks” are individuals who indiscriminately distribute this information on the internet.
Social Engineering
Eavesdropping – The attacker attempts to record the intended victim’s chat with someone or communication over the telephone.
Shoulder Surfing – When he or she is entering his or her personal details for some reason, the attacker tries to capture the victim’s personal information such as email id, password, and so on.
A company’s Website
It’s the best spot for an attacker to start. Suppose an attacker intends to find open-source data granted only to clients, consumers, or the general public. In that case, the best method is to visit the “ORGANISATION’S WEBSITE.”
Using Neo Trace
NeoTrace is an excellent program for obtaining route data. The route between you and the remote location is displayed graphically with any intermediate nodes and their information. NeoTrace is a popular route tracing application with a graphical user interface. It shows the IP address, contact information, and location of each node in addition to a graphic path.
Advantages
Hackers can use Footprinting to collect the fundamental security settings of a target system and the networking path and transmission of data.
When an attacker discovers a vulnerability, he or she targets a specific spot of the victim’s device.
It enables the hacker to determine which attack is most advantageous in hacking the target network.
Counter-measures include:
- Avoid sharing personal information on social media sites.
- Accepting inappropriate friend requests on social networking sites should be avoided.
- Be aware when promoting an educational post on the wedsite
- Footprinting strategies are used to identify and remove sensitive data from social media networks.
- Web server configuration should be done correctly to avoid deleting the system’s configuration information.
Who is:
This is a website that is beneficial for hackers. A website’s domain name, email address, domain administrator, and all other details can be traced using this website. Essentially, this is a method for Website Footprinting. So, to have a comprehensive understanding, you can join Ethical Hacking Course in Chennai to have a precise understanding of important concepts like Linear Classification, Logistic regression, Linear regression, estimator bias, and variance, active learning, Kernel regression, Support vector machine, etc.
Now, you would have understood what footprinting and footprinting are in ethical hacking. So, to learn more about ethical hacking, you can join the Ethical hacking course to have a comprehensive understanding of hacking techniques and tools.