Customer Reviews

Software Forensics : Collecting Evidence from the Scene of a Digital Crime

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There is nothing in this book that has not been covered 50 times before.
Interesting read, but there are gigabytes of similar FEEE data on the same topic on the net.

So why bother?

This book was a difficult read. The content isn't particularly difficult, but the book's organization and scattered subject matter made it difficult to get through. Though I read the book cover to cover, I often felt I was rereading material.

For example, his 21-page treatment of "Players- Hackers, Crackers, etc." conveyed no more information than did his 6-page overview of them in his Introduction. Even so, I have the distinct impression that the most he's ever seen of a "hacker" is on TV.

My background in this topic has been purely educational (that is to say I've taken 1 forensics class) and I have to agree that there are several books that cover the topic more clearly and more in depth than this one.

My recommendation... go to your local library or book store and spend 30 minutes reading the Introduction, you won't be missing much.

I have been in the computer forensic industry for a very long time and have a number of books on the computer forensic subject, but I returned this book to Amazon, because it it really didn't add any thing new.

If you need to know anything about forensics, DON'T read this book.

Poorly written and full of errors.

Avoid at all costs!

This is a book by a person who clearly has no real world experience in the word of digital forensic investigations.

While the information is relevant; it should not be used as an authoritative text.

There are much better titles and this should be used as a text of last resort.

Most people know at least a little about forensics, if just from television shows like CSI. Computer forensics are a different matter altogether. Given the unglamorous technical work involved, is there little wonder that prime-time television does not air a show called Computer Forensic Geeks? While not ideal material for adaptation into a prime-time drama, Software Forensics: Collecting Evidence from the Scene of a Digital Crime enlightens the reader by providing a pretty good high-level introduction to the core concepts of computer software forensics.

Author Robert Slade mines solid detail, including listing specific software tools that can be used to identify and track virus creators, however unlikely corporate America might be to invest resources for such an effort. Slade discusses legal rules of evidence and emphasizes the importance of keeping evidence pristine so that its veracity is unshakable.

As a high-level introduction, the book is a good choice. But for more advanced practitioners, much of this material will be common knowledge.

My brother, the computer guru, is back with a new book. This time, his subject is software forensics. That is, studying a trojan horse, virus, worm, or other malware to try to determine who wrote it. I have to admit that, since this is not as common a topic of conversation over the dinner table as computer viruses (the subject of Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses and Viruses Revealed), I was a bit dubious of my ability to make much sense out of such an arcane topic.

I may not know the topic, but I should have known my brother: just as with his earlier works, he takes a complicated topic and explains it in a way that any reasonably intelligent person should be able to understand, without oversimplifying things. Albert Einstein is reputed to have said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." There is a tendency, when trying to explain something complex to a person whose knowledge lies outside that field, to simplify things so much that what you say is partly untrue, and that person would need to "unlearn" the simplification before advancing much farther in that field. I have always tried, when explaining things, never to simplify so much that I say anything untrue. My brother obviously goes by the same principle.

I will not even attempt to deal with the subject matter of the book here. While it is possible that you, gentle reader, are responsible for securing computer systems at your workplace, and thus have need of the tools Rob discusses, the odds are against it, so I will content myself with saying, "My brother's got a new book out! Isn't it cool?"

I will note, in passing, that Rob wears the nasty comments about his books which collect on Amazon with some pride. If his works did not inconvenience the "black hats", they would not go to so much effort to try to discourage people from buying them. (Although having a group of people out to torpedo your work probably doesn't help sales.)