Musings and confusings. All things DFIR.

Month: December 2016

DFIR Community Inspirations

Ok, so I lied about not posting until 2017.

As I continue work on the blog, I couldn’t help but think of all the people who have inspired me over the years. Not just to learn and become better at what I do, but to pay it forward so that others may benefit and hopefully be inspired as well.

So, as I close out 2016 and ring in the new year, I’d like to recognize the following individuals for being an inspiration to me over the years and helping me to become an overall better (and now better contributing) DFIR expert. It is no easy feat to maintain and balance a career, home/social life, hobbies, and countless other daily obligations while also taking regular time out to create, test, curate, and develop for the sole purpose of simply helping the community/others.

Seriously. Stop and think about your average day. How often do you finally sit down at the end of a work day or in the middle of a weekend and think to yourself, “I’d love to spend a few (more) hours working for little to no return other than community benefit and growth”? Yeah. On the scale of “wants”, it probably rates somewhere between “shoveling snow” and “hitting the gym on January 2nd”.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are certainly benefits to doing it whether it be a creative outlet, simply the satisfaction of helping others, or something else altogether. But, regardless of how much or little benefit you get from doing this, the fact remains that you’ve really got to have a LOT of passion to regularly contribute to the community, and these people have nothing short of that.

Without further adieu, I have listed them in no particular order… except alphabetically by last name… with media links successively alphabetical… thank you, OCD!

Adam B – Blog / Twitter
Willi Ballenthin – Blog / Github / Twitter
Matt Bromiley – Medium / Twitter
Harlan Carvey – Blog / Github / Twitter
David Cowen – Blog / Twitter
Cheeky4n6Monkey – Blog / Twitter
Mari Degrazia – Blog / Twitter
Sarah Edwards – Blog / Twitter
Matt Graeber – Twitter
Jared Greenhill – Twitter
Corey Harrell – Blog / Twitter
Rob Lee – SANS Blog / Twitter
Brian Moran – Blog / Twitter
Jessica Payne – Twitter
Hal Pomeranz – Blog / Twitter
Dan Pullega – Blog / Twitter
Lenny Zeltser – Blog / Twitter
Eric Zimmerman – Blog / Twitter

I am sure that I have left some people out. So, to better capture this information as it continues to grow and be updated, I’ve placed it on my DFIR Resources page.

Please feel free to sound off in the comments with feedback for these great individuals or mention others who I have not named that have made a particular impact in/on your career.

/JP

Hello. Whirled.

Well, 2016 was quite the whirlwind.

In my DFIR career spanning government (NSM), contractor (cyber investigations), and now private sector (DFIR consulting), I’ve always been passionate, determined, and purposeful in making the time to get better, faster, and stronger at what I do. As a team member, I have extended the products of this passion to the team whenever possible so that we all win together. However, it has most always stopped just there, rarely extending past our internal team(s) into the DFIR community at large. Today, that all changes, my DFIR friends.

I cannot convey how much I have learned and benefitted from others’ blog posts, research, and tool developments. Well, I can, and I will throughout various posts to come. Nonetheless, this past year, the onus began weighing heavily on my mind to give back to the community that has helped me do so much so well. So, a few months ago I began putting a blog into motion, aiming to capture various topics, insights, tips, walkthroughs, tutorials, and/or anything generally worthwhile of thought. It has taken me longer than anticipated, but better late than never, right?

Though much of the blog will likely contain technical content, I will also be developing and publishing non-technical content that I find equally important (and often times more so) to a successful (DFIR) career. As will be the case with every post to follow, I hope this blog can help in some way to foster discussion, collaboration, and overall participation within the DFIR community (and simply give back).

I’m going to take the holidays and remainder of the year to finally sit down and shore up some posts to hopefully get the blog going in the new year.

Until then, see you all in 2017.

Please Note: This blog does not reflect the opinions or views of my employer and solely reflects those of my own. However, any mistakes, oversights, or generally unfavorable posts were definitely done by someone else.

/JP

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