What is a common environmental reconnaissance task that helps to map an organization's network?

Topology discovery is a critical environmental reconnaissance task used to map an organization's network. This process involves identifying the physical and logical arrangement of network devices and the connections between them. By uncovering how devices are interconnected, analysts gain insights into the network's structure, which is fundamental for various cybersecurity practices, including vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.

This task typically makes use of tools and techniques that automatically identify devices on the network, their IP addresses, and their interrelationships. Understanding the network topology allows security professionals to identify potential weaknesses, detect unauthorized devices, and optimize network performance and security configurations.

The other tasks mentioned, while relevant in cybersecurity, focus on different aspects. For instance, packet sniffing captures data packets in transit to analyze network traffic, network segmentation analysis examines how a network is divided into segments for improved security, and data exfiltration testing assesses the ability to transfer data out of a network undetected. However, none of these directly relate to the foundational mapping of the network that topology discovery provides.