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