You see the career section of a company's Web site and analyze the job profile requirements. You conclude that the company wants professionals who have a sharp knowledge of Windows server 2003 and Win

Scanning involves actively probing target systems with tools such as port scanners or vulnerability scanners, not passively reading public web content.

Covering tracks is the final phase of an attack, focused on removing logs and evidence of intrusion after access has been gained.

Reconnaissance is the first phase of ethical hacking where an attacker passively collects information about a target without directly interacting with its systems. Reading public job postings to infer internal technology stacks - such as Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory - is a classic open-source intelligence (OSINT) footprinting technique that reveals the target environment without triggering any alerts.

Gaining access refers to exploiting discovered vulnerabilities to compromise a system, which has not yet occurred at this stage.