A penetration tester is evaluating a company's network perimeter. The tester has received limited information about defensive controls or countermeasures, and limited internal knowledge of the testing exists. Which of the following should be the FIRST step to plan the reconnaissance activities?

A. Launch an external scan of netblocks.
B. Check WHOIS and netblock records for the company.
C. Use DNS lookups and dig to determine the external hosts.
D. Conduct a ping sweep of the company's netblocks.