Datt - Learning Network Forensics

Samir Datt has been dabbling with digital investigations since 1988, which was around the time he solved his first case with the help of an old PC and Lotus 123. He is the Founder CEO of Foundation Futuristic Technologies (P) Ltd, better known as ForensicsGuru.com. He is widely credited with evangelizing computer forensics in the Indian subcontinent and has personally trained thousands of law enforcement officers in the area. He has the distinction of starting the computer forensics industry in South Asia and setting up India's first computer forensic lab in the private sector. He is consulted by law enforcement agencies and private sector on various technology-related investigative issues. He has extensive experience in training thousands of investigators as well as examining a large number of digital sources of evidence in both private and government investigations.

At last it is done,

A journey that long ago was begun,

Many lights there are that have helped on the way,

To everyone of them, my thanks I would say.

This book would never have seen the light of day had it not been for Tushar Gupta, acquisition editor at Packt Publishing. He tracked me down and invited and convinced me to write. He encouraged me, cajoled me, and finally pushed me into the mystic world of authoring. Thanks Tushar!

I would also like to convey my heartfelt thanks to Riddhi Tuljapurkar, my content development editor. She has been a beacon guiding me through the myriad steps that being an author involves. A first-time author has many moments of self-doubt and hesitation; never did she let me falter, always encouraging, always supportive, she is perhaps the single most important reason that the book is ready on time. Thank you!

My book reviewers have been my compass and their encouragements, suggestions, comments, and guidance have been instrumental in getting the book to its present state. Thank you Clinton D'Souza and Nikhil Agarwal. I am indeed deeply grateful.

My family has been my biggest cheerleader. A special thanks to my wife, Resham, who has had to put up with my extensive travel schedules and uncounted holidays and weekends devoted to meeting the chapter deadlines. She has been my rock and has always believed that I was destined to write. My son, Madhav, who despite his own hectic schedules at IIT, Kharagpur, took time out to help me with the illustrations, screenshots, chapter editing, and scenario environments. Without you this could never have been done. Many thanks!

I also owe a thank you to my parents, who have been encouraging throughout the course of this book. My dogs, Tuffy, Lucky, Lolu, and Chutki, have been a source of inspiration by constantly bombarding me with unlimited doses of love and affection.

Thanks are also due to the rock-solid team at ForensicsGuru.com, who helped me with my research and chapter illustrations. Great work, guys!

Last but not least, I thank the Creator; for without Him, no creation is possible.

Nikhil Agarwal , an InfoSec researcher, proactive, and performance-driven professional from India with more than three years of progressive expertise in management and IT security field, is dedicated to operational excellence, quality, safety, and respectful leadership. Nikhil is insightful and result-driven IT professional with notable success directing a broad range of corporate IT security initiatives while participating in planning, analyzing, and implementing solutions in support of business objectives. He excels at providing comprehensive secure network design, systems analysis, and complete life cycle project management.

By qualification, Nikhil possesses a bachelor's degree in engineering in the domain of electronic and communications from Swami Keshvanand Institute of Technology, Management and Gramothan (SKIT) (http://www.skit.ac.in/), Jaipur, Rajasthan. He has completed various projects during his studies and submitted a range of research papers along with the highest range of international certifications. By profession, Nikhil is an IT security engineer and trainer, and a multi-faceted professional with more than three years of experience living, studying, and working in international environments (Asia and Africa). He has undertaken and successfully completed many security projects ranging from providing services, auditing, to training.

The description of his professional journey can be found on his LinkedIn profile (https://za.linkedin.com/in/reachatnikhil).

Nikhil spends much of his leisure time writing technical articles for his blogs, Technocrat Club (http://technocratclub.blogspot.com), and answering queries over Quora, Stack Overflow, and GitHub. He also has a passion for photography and travelling to new places. He enjoys authoring technical/nontechnical articles for various blogs and websites, along with reviewing books from various IT technologies.

Apart from this, Nikhil has founded and holds the post of President for a global non-profit organization, Youth Cross Foundation, working for socially-challenged people to bring up their quality of living with technology as their weapon.

Things that set Nikhil apart are creativity, passion, and honesty towards his work. He has always had the support of his family, friends, and relatives, especially his mother. From time to time, Nikhil holds seminars for organizations wanting to explore or discover the possibilities of information security and help answer the spatial questions better. Nikhil is also a lecturer and enjoys teaching the wonderful powers of IT security and explaining how to solve problems on various platforms to the students and corporates. Nikhil's work has also found special mentioning in some national news headlines (http://www.thestatesman.com/mobi/news/features/checking-for-vulnerabilities/76087.html).