Social Media Finding Sorter

About this interactive

Ask what the attacker gains from the find, not where it was posted. Some finds name a person worth approaching or impersonating: a help-desk hire, an executive assistant, a named administrator — someone to target or pose as. Some reveal the technology the organization runs: a job posting that demands a named firewall or platform tells an attacker exactly what to prepare for. And some are secrets disclosed by mistake: a password on a sticky note caught in a photo, a badge shown in a selfie, an internal server name in a screenshot. The first two are deliberate posts read for intent; the third is an accident the poster never meant to share. Sort on the gain: a person, the tech, or a slip.

What you'll learn

Sort a find from social media scraping by what it gives an attacker: a person worth approaching or impersonating, the technology the organization runs, or a secret disclosed unintentionally
Explain why each kind of find is valuable when planning a social engineering attack

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).
Social Engineering: A manipulation technique that exploits human psychology to trick individuals into revealing confidential information.
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.
Spear Phishing: A targeted phishing attack directed at a specific individual or organization using personalized information.

Topics

Interactive Categorize

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