I decided to write this book for a couple of reasons. One was that I ve now written a couple of books that have to do with incident response and forensic analysis on Windows systems, and I used a lot of Perl in both books. Okay I ll come clean I used nothing but Perl in both books What I ve seen as a result of this is that many readers want to use the tools, but don t know how they simply aren t familiar with Perl, with interpreted (or scripting) languages in general, and may not be entirely comfortable with running tools at the command line. This book is intended for anyone who has an interest in useful Perl scripting, in particular on the Windows platform, for the purpose of incident response, and forensic analysis, and application monitoring. While a thorough grounding in scripting languages (or in Perl specifically) is not required, it helpful in fully and more completely understanding the material and code presented in this book. This book contains information that is useful to consultants who perform incident response and computer forensics, specifically as those activities pertain to MS Windows systems (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and some Vista). My hope is that not only will consultants (such as myself) find this material valuable, but so will system administrators, law enforcement officers, and students in undergraduate and graduate programs focusing on computer forensics.

Code can be found at: http: //www.elsevierdirect.com/companion.jsp?ISBN=9781597491730
*Perl Scripting for Live Response
Using Perl, there s a great deal of information you can retrieve from systems, locally or remotely, as part of troubleshooting or investigating an issue. Perl scripts can be run from a central management point, reaching out to remote systems in order to collect information, or they can be "compiled" into standalone executables using PAR, PerlApp, or Perl2Exe so that they can be run on systems that do not have ActiveState s Perl distribution (or any other Perl distribution) installed.
*Perl Scripting for Computer Forensic Analysis
Perl is an extremely useful and powerful tool for performing computer forensic analysis. While there are applications available that let an examiner access acquired images and perform some modicum of visualization, there are relatively few tools that meet the specific needs of a specific examiner working on a specific case. This is where the use of Perl really shines through and becomes apparent.
*Perl Scripting for Application Monitoring
Working with enterprise-level Windows applications requires a great deal of analysis and constant monitoring. Automating the monitoring portion of this effort can save a great deal of time, reduce system downtimes, and improve the reliability of your overall application. By utilizing Perl scripts and integrating them with the application technology, you can easily build a simple monitoring framework that can alert you to current or future application issues."

Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools is the definitive book on investigating and analyzing computer systems and media using open source tools. The book is a technical procedural guide, and explains the use of open source tools on Mac, Linux and Windows systems as a platform for performing computer forensics. Both well-known and novel forensic methods are demonstrated using command-line and graphical open source computer forensic tools for examining a wide range of target systems and artifacts. Written by world-renowned forensic practitioners, this book uses the most current examination and analysis techniques in the field. It consists of 9 chapters that cover a range of topics such as the open source examination platform; disk and file system analysis; Windows systems and artifacts; Linux systems and artifacts; Mac OS X systems and artifacts; Internet artifacts; and automating analysis and extending capabilities. The book lends itself to use by students and those entering the field who do not have means to purchase new tools for different investigations. This book will appeal to forensic practitioners from areas including incident response teams and computer forensic investigators; forensic technicians from legal, audit, and consulting firms; and law enforcement agencies.

Unlike other books, courses and training that expect an analyst to piece together individual instructions into a cohesive investigation, Investigating Windows Systems provides a walk-through of the analysis process, with descriptions of the thought process and analysis decisions along the way. Investigating Windows Systems will not address topics which have been covered in other books, but will expect the reader to have some ability to discover the detailed usage of tools and to perform their own research. The focus of this volume is to provide a walk-through of the analysis process, with descriptions of the thought process and the analysis decisions made along the way. A must-have guide for those in the field of digital forensic analysis and incident response.

Windows Registry Forensics: Advanced Digital Forensic Analysis of the Windows Registry, Second Edition, provides the most in-depth guide to forensic investigations involving Windows Registry. This book is one-of-a-kind, giving the background of the Registry to help users develop an understanding of the structure of registry hive files, as well as information stored within keys and values that can have a significant impact on forensic investigations. Tools and techniques for post mortem analysis are discussed at length to take users beyond the current use of viewers and into real analysis of data contained in the Registry. This second edition continues a ground-up approach to understanding so that the treasure trove of the Registry can be mined on a regular and continuing basis.

Harlan Carvey has updated "Windows Forensic Analysis Toolkit," now in its fourth edition, to cover Windows 8 systems. The primary focus of this edition is on analyzing Windows 8 systems and processes using free and open-source tools. The book covers live response, file analysis, malware detection, timeline, and much more. Harlan Carvey presents real-life experiences from the trenches, making the material realistic and showing the why behind the how.

The companion and toolkit materials are hosted online. This material consists of electronic printable checklists, cheat sheets, free custom tools, and walk-through demos. This edition complements "Windows Forensic Analysis Toolkit, Second Edition," which focuses primarily on XP, and "Windows Forensic Analysis Toolkit, Third Edition," which focuses primarily on Windows 7.

This new fourth edition provides expanded coverage of many topics beyond Windows 8 as well, including new cradle-to-grave case examples, USB device analysis, hacking and intrusion cases, and "how would I do this" from Harlan's personal case files and questions he has received from readers. The fourth edition also includes an all-new chapter on reporting.
Complete coverage and examples of Windows 8 systems Contains lessons from the field, case studies, and war stories Companion online toolkit material, including electronic printable checklists, cheat sheets, custom tools, and walk-throughs