You have gone to an organization’s website to gather information, such as employee names, email...

The correct answer is B, Reconnaissance. In CEH methodology, reconnaissance is the initial information-gathering phase where an attacker or ethical hacker collects as much data as possible about a target before deeper technical testing or attack activity. The retrieved CEH-related material describes reconnaissance as gathering information about the target using active or passive means, and it specifically includes collecting initial information about the target system or organization. Visiting an organization’s public website to collect employee names, email addresses, and phone numbers is passive information gathering because the tester is using publicly available sources rather than directly probing systems. Footprinting, which is part of reconnaissance, can include gathering employee information, phone numbers, and emails. Fingerprinting is more specific to identifying systems, services, or operating systems. Scanning and enumeration involve actively probing hosts, ports, and services. Gaining access occurs later, when vulnerabilities are exploited. Therefore, this activity corresponds to reconnaissance.