External or Internal Asset?

About this interactive

The question is a single one: could an outsider reach this without first getting inside the network? External assets face the internet or the public — a registered domain, a public web server, an employee's name on a job board, a leaked password dump an attacker buys. They are what the attacker gathers first, before any access. Internal assets live inside the organization: directory accounts and groups, file shares only staff on the LAN reach, servers and workstations on the internal network, and shadow IT an employee set up without approval. The lesson works the external assets, because those are what reconnaissance reaches before a foothold exists; the internal ones come after access, in a later module. Ask where the thing sits, not how sensitive it is.

What you'll learn

Sort the assets an attacker discovers during reconnaissance into external assets, reachable from outside the organization, and internal assets, found inside its network and infrastructure
Explain why external reconnaissance precedes internal reconnaissance, and which assets a module on external recon is concerned with

Aligned to

CompTIA PenTest+

2.1 Given a scenario, apply information gathering techniques.

CompTIA Security+

2.2 Explain common threat vectors and attack surfaces.

Key terms

Reconnaissance: The first phase of an attack in which an adversary gathers information about a target — such as open ports, employee names, and technology stacks — before launching an attack. Reconnaissance can be passive (using public sources) or active (directly probing the target).
Attack Surface: The total set of points in a system where an unauthorized user can attempt to enter or extract data.
Enumeration: The process of extracting detailed information about a target, such as counting users, groups, and network resources, going deeper than general reconnaissance.
Open-Source Intelligence: Open-Source Intelligence is the collection and analysis of publicly available information from sources such as websites, social media, and public records to support cybersecurity investigations, threat intelligence, and penetration testing reconnaissance.

Topics

Interactive Streak Sort

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