Information gathering can be undertaken in two broad categories of methods—technical and nontechnical methods. As the name suggests, the technical methods are reliant on computer-aided techniques of collecting information. There is, however, no assurance that a particular tool or piece of electronic equipment will obtain sufficient information about a target. Therefore, a mix of the following stated tools and devices might be used to gather information about targets. Social engineers will use multiple information gathering-tools/techniques and merge the information they get to build a profile for their targets.

It comes as no surprise that the first target on the list would be where money is kept. Social engineers are in most cases after money and therefore, banks are a prime target. It is not the old times when money used to be kept only in hard cash and that one...