Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Kristinn Gudjonsson and log2timeline in 2012

I want to try something a little different this year with the Forensic 4Cast Awards. Normally, I just do what I can to get the word out about the awards without trying to influence the process. However, this year I would like to offer up a respectful suggestion for two of the categories. Kristinn Gudjonsson is my choice for the Digital Forensic Examiner of the Year and his magnificent log2timeline tool is my choice for Computer Forensic Software Tool of the Year. There isn’t any reason to inflict a lengthy blog post on you extolling the many virtues of Kristinn and his work in the field since Rob Lee has already performed this task admirably. However, I want to encourage to you to nominate your favorite digital forensics hardware, software, books, podcasts, and the like so that the folks who do so much for the community get the recognition that they deserve. I’m having a hard time with the nominations this year because there was so much incredible work done in 2011. This is a good problem to have because it’s a reflection of all of the energy and creativity that we have going on in the digital forensics world.

Monday, January 16, 2012

2012 Forensic 4Cast Awards

It’s that time of year when the nominations for the Forensic 4Cast Awards open up. You can find the nomination ballot for the 2012 awards here. It is important to understand that while the indispensible Lee Whitfield is the man behind the nominations, he has nothing to do with who gets nominated or who ends up with an award. The first part of the process is where we are right now which is where Lee collects nominations from the community. Once the nomination phase is closed, he will put together a ballot that includes the top nominees. The community will then vote on which of the nominees will win the award in each category. The last part of the process is where the awards are announced at the SANS DFIR Summit in Austin, Texas.

The categories for this year are:

  • Digital Forensic Blog of the Year
  • Digital Forensic Article of the Year
  • Digital Forensic Book of the Year
  • Digital Forensic Podcast of the Year
  • Computer Forensic Hardware Tool of the Year
  • Computer Forensic Software Tool of the Year
  • Phone Forensic Hardware Tool of the Year
  • Phone Forensic Software Tool of the Year
  • Digital Forensic Examiner of the Year
  • Digital Forensic Organisation of the Year

Yes, Lee is English. No, he can’t spell “organization”. He lives in Texas now so we’re working on Americanizing his spelling and getting him to become a proper NFL football fan.