Malware forensics field guide for windows systems

Eoghan Casey is a professor of Digital Forensic Science and Investigation in the School of Criminal Sciences at the University of Lausanne. For nearly two decades, he has dedicated himself to advancing the practices of digital forensics and intrusion investigation. He has extensive experience working in digital forensic laboratories in the public and private sectors, and he has analyzed many types of digital evidence to support complex cases. He has consulted with many attorneys, agencies, and police departments in the United States, South America, and Europe on a wide range of digital investigations, including fraud, violent crimes, identity theft, and on-line criminal activity. He has delivered expert testimony in civil and criminal matters, and has submitted expert reports and prepared trial exhibits for computer forensic and cyber-crime cases. He has helped organizations investigate and recover from security breaches, including network intrusions with international scope. He has helped develop new capabilities for extracting and analyzing digital evidence, including smartphones and networks.

In his former role as Chief Scientist of the Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3), which houses one of the largest accredited digital forensic laboratories in the world, Dr. Casey prioritized research and development across multiple organizational units, and provided strategic and technical guidance to navigate evolving challenges in digital forensics and intrusion investigation. Dr. Casey also contributed directly to DC3 operations, performing advanced technical analysis of multi-faceted problems in order to determine the root cause and provide rational explanations supported by digital evidence.

Dr. Casey wrote the foundational book Digital Evidence and Computer Crime, now in its third edition, and he created advanced smartphone forensics courses taught worldwide. He has also coauthored several advanced technical books including Malware Forensics, and the Handbook of Digital Forensics and Investigation. Since 2004, he has been Editor-in-Chief of Digital Investigation: The International Journal of Digital Forensics & Incident Response, publishing cutting edge work by and for practitioners and researchers. He serves on the Digital Forensic Research Workshop (DFRWS) Board of Directors and helps organize biannual digital forensic research conferences. He also contributes to forensic science definitions, guidelines, and standards as Executive Secretary of the Digital/Multimedia Scientific Area Committee (DMSAC) of the Organization for Scientific Area Committees (OSAC).​

Cameron H. Malin is a Behavioral Profiler with over 20 years of experience investigating, analyzing and profiling cyber adversaries across the spectrum of criminal to national security. He is the founder of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit’s (BAU) Cyber Behavioral Analysis Center (CBAC) and the longest serving FBI Cyber Profiler. He is a co-author of the authoritative cyber deception book, Deception in the Digital Age: Exploiting and Defending Human Targets Through Computer-Mediated Communications (published by Academic Press, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc.) and co-author of the Malware Forensics book series: Malware Forensics: Investigating and Analyzing Malicious Code, Malware Forensics Field Guide for Windows Systems, and Malware Forensics Field Guide for Linux Systems (all published by Syngress, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc.). Cameron is the creator of Digital Behavioral Criminalistics – a combined application of numerous forensic disciplines—digital forensics, criminalistics, and behavioral sciences—to meaningfully uncovering offender thoughts and actions in digital artifacts—as well as the Cyber Pathway to Intended Violence (CPIV)—a model for assessing violent offenders who have engaged computer systems, devices, and/or online resources before, during, and/or after a premeditated, violent act. These important emerging topics were published in his book chapter Digital Behavioral Criminalistics to Elucidate the Cyber Pathway to Intended Violence in the International Handbook of Threat Assessment, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2021). Prior to working for the FBI, Cameron was an Assistant State Attorney (ASA) and Special Assistant United States Attorney in Miami, Florida, where he specialized in computer crime prosecutions. During his tenure as an ASA, he was also an Assistant Professorial Lecturer in the Computer Fraud Investigations Master’s Program at George Washington University.

Book
description

Malware Forensics Field Guide for Windows Systems is a handy reference that shows students the essential tools needed to do computer forensics analysis at the crime scene. It is part of Syngress Digital Forensics Field Guides, a series of companions for any digital and computer forensic student, investigator or analyst. Each Guide is a toolkit, with checklists for specific tasks, case studies of difficult situations, and expert analyst tips that will aid in recovering data from digital media that will be used in criminal prosecution.

This book collects data from all methods of electronic data storage and transfer devices, including computers, laptops, PDAs and the images, spreadsheets and other types of files stored on these devices. It is specific for Windows-based systems, the largest running OS in the world. The authors are world-renowned leaders in investigating and analyzing malicious code. Chapters cover malware incident response — volatile data collection and examination on a live Windows system; analysis of physical and process memory dumps for malware artifacts; post-mortem forensics — discovering and extracting malware and associated artifacts from Windows systems; legal considerations; file identification and profiling initial analysis of a suspect file on a Windows system; and analysis of a suspect program.

This field guide is intended for computer forensic investigators, analysts, and specialists.

• A condensed hand-held guide complete with on-the-job tasks and checklists
• Specific for Windows-based systems, the largest running OS in the world
• Authors are world-renowned leaders in investigating and analyzing malicious code

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