Reconnaissance Tools

The most common and widely used hacking tools are reconnaissance tools. Many of these tools have been developed by hackers to aid them in their illicit activities. Other tools used by hackers are the same tools commonly used by network engineers to view problems on the network.

As security and intrusion detection have gotten more sophisticated, so has the software used by hackers. Intrusion-detection software looks for people looking at the network. Hackers know that scanning and probing a network is likely to create suspicion and might generate alarms. Because of this, hackers have begun to develop new software that attempts to hide the true purpose of its activity. Reconnaissance tools in common use today include the following: