Pages

Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Kudos and Recognition

During my time in the industry, I've seen a couple of interesting aspects of "information sharing". One is that not many like to do it. The other is that, over time, content creation and consumption has changed pretty dramatically.

Back in the day, folks like Chris Pogue, with his The Digital Standard blog, and Corey Harrell with his Journey Into IR blog, and even more recently, Mari with her Another Forensics Blog have all provided a great deal of relevant, well-developed information. A lot of what Mari shared as far back as 2015 has even been relevant very recently, particularly regarding deleted data in SQLite databases. And, puh-LEASE, let's not forget Jolanta Thomassen, who, in 2008, published her dissertation addressing unallocated space in Registry hives, along with the first tool (regslack) to parse and extract those contents - truly seminal work!

Many may not be aware, but there are some unsung heroes in the DFIR industry, unrecognized contributors who are developing and sharing some incredible content, but without really tooting their own horn. These folks have been doing some really phenomenal work that needs to be called out and held up, so I'm gonna toot their horn for them! So, in no particular order...

Lina is an IR consultant with Secureworks (an org for which I am an alum), and as string of alphabet soup following her name. Lina has developed some pretty incredible content, which she shares via her blog, as well as via LinkedIn, and in tweet threads. One of her posts I've enjoyed in particular is this one regarding clipboard analysis. Lina's content has always been well-considered, well-constructed, and very thoughtful. I have always enjoyed when content produced by practitioners, as it's very often the most relevant.

Krz is another analyst, and has dropped a good deal of high quality content, as well as written some of his own tools (including RegRipper plugins), which he also shares via Github. Not only did Krz uncover that Windows Updates will clear out valuable forensic resources, but also did some considerable research into how a system going on battery power impacts that system, and subsequently, forensic analysis.

Patrick Siewert has hung out his own shingle, and does a lot of work in the law enforcement and legal communities, in addition to sharing some pretty fascinating content. I have never had the opportunity to work with mobile devices (beyond laptops), but Patrick's article on cellular records analysis is a thorough and interesting treatment of the topic. 

Julian-Ferdinand Vögele recently shared a fascinating article titled The Rise of LNK Files, dropping a really good description of Windows shortcut files and their use. Anyone who's followed me for any amount of time knows I'm more than mildly interested in this topic, from a digital forensic and threat intel perspective. He's got some other really interesting articles on his blog, including this one regarding Scheduled Tasks, and like the other folks mentioned here, I'm looking forward to more great content in the future.

If you're looking for something less on the deep technical side or less DFIR focused, check out Maril's content. She's a leader in the "purple team" space, and she's got some really great content on personal branding that I strongly recommend that everyone take the time to watch, follow, digest, and consider. To add to that, it seems that Maril and her partners-in-crime (other #womenincyber) will be dropping the CyberQueensPodcast starting in Sept.

If you're into podcasts, give Jax a listen over at Outpost Gray (she also co-hosts the 2 Cyber Chicks podcast) and in particular, catch her chat with Dorota Koslowska tomorrow (25 Aug). Jax is a former US Army special ops EW/cyber warrant officer, and as you can imagine, she brings an interesting perspective to a range of subjects, a good bit of which she shares via her blog.

Let's be sure to recognize those who produce exceptional content, and in particular those who do so on a regular basis!

No comments:

Post a Comment