When gathering information it is truly looking for a needle in a haystack scenar

Question

When gathering information it is truly looking for a needle in a haystack scenario, the only issue being, you have no idea what a needle is or what it looks like. The information you may seek is either very well hidden (the security professional has done his/her job well) or there is so much information out there that how do you find the tree you want from the forest it is in.

The information gathering phase is about seeking information wherever it may be found. So when do you draw the line between looking for that next gold nugget and wasting time because you are finding nothing?

Explanation / Answer

I guess gathering information by you here means trying conventional ways or unconventional ways to into or find the information you need from or about the company from the company website or something online. If the company information is very well hidden and organize and if you're good with the techniques that you think should work for getting the information from such a company that you have tried before, then I think you'll yourself know that when and where to draw the line for that. Indeed the information security person here has done a pretty good job in securing and hiding the information as important as it is from potential misuse. If you respect that and don't want to try any unconventional way of unethical way of getting that information, then then and there it's a line for you to not proceed, because simply the company doesn't want you to have that information. If you need that for a genuine purpose, then only hope would be to contact the company. Other than that, if you're in and have the required skills for getting that data out of unethical methods or hacking into the company website or database, then you're welcome to try with your own risk. Even if one has done this before, one will feel if the company security is tight for a threat such as one tries to steal information from it, then then and there if you don't want to get any trouble, there would be a line drawn in your conscience. Thus I feel it depends on person to person and their capabilities and wishes.

As your question was unclear, so I was able to give a rough view. For any thing in particular, please feel free to comment and like if you like the answer.

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