I have performed 100s of pentests in the last 20 years, I know that's not a lot. It's because I focus on quality vs quantity. But my success rate has been 100% !!!! Why? Because I spend about 50% of my time in the recon phase or advanced OSINT work. Also, I have very well defined objectives and scopes. Because of this, a 100% of my clients have been satisfied with the results and call me back for re-tests.

Even though I may bid the highest for competitive quotes, I still manage to attract enough quality business by providing immense value to the client. That's the secret sauce to my success, and I'm here to help you master it too!

Adding Value With OSINT:

• Makes your pentesting more potent
• Cuts down your "attack" time
• Minimizes your failure rate
• Demonstrates due diligence in the report
• Reveals other ways to attack that may be out of scope but look great in a report, especially if you couldn't "get in". Count that as a success as well. It shows you were "thinking like a hacker" and not just following a script or pentesting framework.

💡 Tip

Spend lots of time doing OSINT before you start your pentest. It will give you a better idea of where to focus on.

Practice with all the resources in your list BEFORE you ever use them for work. You don't want to be "figuring" it out on-the-job.