When gathering information it is truly looking for a needle in a haystack scenario, the only issue being, you have no idea what a needle is or what it looks like. The information you may seek is either very well hidden (the security professional has done his/her job well) or there is so much information out there that how do you find the tree you want from the forest it is in.

The information gathering phase is about seeking information wherever it may be found. So when do you draw the line between looking for that next gold nugget and wasting time because you are finding nothing?