Product Description: Investigate computer crime, corporate malfeasance, and hacker break-ins quickly and effectively with help from this practical and comprehensive resource. You’ll get expert information on crucial procedures to successfully prosecute violators while avoiding the pitfalls of illicit searches, privacy violations, and illegally obtained evidence. It’s all here--from collecting actionable evidence, re-creating the criminal timeline, and zeroing in on a suspect to uncovering obscured and deleted code, unlocking encrypted files, and preparing lawful affidavits. Plus, you’ll get in-depth coverage of the latest PDA and cell phone investigation techniques and real-world case studies.
An excellent reference but... for anyone conducting an investigation, this is the epitome of a textbook reference book hybrid. The book provides a good overview of the most popular tools on the market and how to effectively use them during the investigative process, as well as legal requirements for evidence handling and tracking.
One of the book's best features is also one of it's biggest weaknesses: if you don't have access to at least one of the software packages demonstrated in the book, the book's value decreases substantially. Although not said in so many words, the implication is that if you don't have one of these tools, your investigation will be much more difficult, if not impossible.
Given the dryness and specificity of the writing, although the book is wellwritten, I would have trouble recommending it to anyone not currently already doing that type of work.
A VITAL reference book This book has been an extremely valuable reference for me and my coworkers on any subject related to forensics that we have encountered in our investigations. This is the only book I've found that covers the laws of forensics as well as technical details of analysis. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that is involved in computer forensics.
Great Information in Familiar Hacking Exposed Format I am never really disappointed in any of the Hacking Exposed series of books. While some of the information may be redundant or appear in other books from the series, Hacking Exposed more or less built, never mind set, the bar for this type of book and each book in the series does an admirable, if not exemplary job of conveying the intended information.
Following the familiar and proven style and format of the Hacking Exposed books, Davis, Philipp and Cowen explain the tools and techniques you need to understand to conduct a computer forensic investigation. They describe the issues and concerns you will face in establishing a chain of custody and ensuring that the evidence you collect will be admissable in a court of law and help you build a case.
Mishandling data and forensic evidence may sink your case before it starts so it is important to understand the legal processes that cover computer forensic investigations and how to get past the hurdles you come upon.
Forensic investigations are a particular interest to me and I found this book to be exceptionally informative and helpful in providing me with the tools and techniques I would need to conduct such an investigation.
Focus on commercial tools I bought this book based upon the experience I had with other Hacking Exposed books... but this one has disappointed me The examples are based on commercial tools only - while I'm certain that there are many open source tools available also. The book contains more than 100 pages of forms and explanations of the legal process, which is nice, but not what I would have expected from a Hacking Exposed book
Excellent Explanations -- Very Easy to Use I work on the security team in a large company and use this as a key reference when working investigations. We're understaffed, and investigations isn't my only focus. When I found out about this book I was excited about the familiar look and feel of a series I've humbly learned much from. IMHO, this book is an outstanding compliment to the arsenal of tools I use when I'm asked to help with investigations. In particular, I like the short and concise legal information and the breadth of topics covered in a short volume. I feel a lot of though went into this because the layout helps me focus on important issues. The book covers so many topics like cell phones, Internet logs, eMail, and Macintosh systems to large storage RAIDS, NAS and SANS. Tools are also covered, including some I knew about, and some I don't know how I lived without before reading this. I feel much more confident handling cases I'm asked to help with.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
