It is this time of year that we have to take a small break from our routine and show our gratitude to those who contribute to this DFIR Community the most. Without them, the whole DFIR community would be different today. Some are new (and promising) to the field and some keep going the distance year after year. They are “The Contributors” and I want to express my gratitude to them and hope to be like them one day. Without further due, here are my personal choices:
DFIR Commercial Tool of the Year
- 1. Magnet AXIOM
- 2. Cellebrite UFED
- 3. Oxygen Detective
AXIOM is my favorite tool up to this day. No matter the case I am working on, there is no chance I will leave any evidence without going through it. It has a plethora of advantages and for me it is the undefeated and ultimate champion of both “Web Related” and “Operating System” artifacts decoding/visualization. During 2020 its great team developed several major updates, which helped me even more in my cases.
Cellebrite UFED and Oxygen Detective are of my favorites tools too. Combined they support almost every cellphone on the market. When one does not support a satisfying extraction of a device the other will step in and vice versa. They are soul mates and both have helped me a lot in the past. They are competing but in a both gentle and noble way. And for me this is what I admire the most for both of them. Their teams also developed numerous updates during 2020 and provided us with great solutions. Another point to mention is their excellent support (at least from personal experience at the Digital Forensics Discord Server). Whenever I needed them, I got my support within hours, minutes or even seconds sometimes. Congrats to you both!
DFIR Non-commercial Tool of the Year
iLEAPP would be my 1st choice. I use it on a regular basis, I love it and I have to admit that it helped me crack a case that commercial tools could not! Alexis (along with his contributors) is doing an excellent job.
Unfurl is another favorite tool of choice. Ryan Benson did an amazing job parsing google searches and URLs of any kind and showed the DFIR community that URLs held much more information that we used to believe. Thank you Ryan for that!
DFIR Show of the Year
- 1. Magnet Forensics Presents: Cache Up
- 2. Life has no ctrl alt del – Cellebrite
Cache Up was by far the best show 2020 had to offer. Jessica Hyde (a.k.a. @Β1Ν2Η3Χ) was an excellent host and interviewed some of the best individuals there are in this community. It felt so nice to see how people got involved in this field and how they end up being part of the history of this community. A both educative and motivational show. Well done Jessica. Keep up the show please!
Another show that was great and helped me in a more technical level was the “Life has no ctrl alt del” with Heather Mahalik as the host. From SQL Queries to recipes, this show had it all. Had fun watching it!
DFIR Blog of the Year
- 1. This week in 4n6 https://thisweekin4n6.com/
- 2. DFIR DIVA https://dfirdiva.com/
This week in 4n6 is the ultimate blog. It pushes the knowledge of the whole community forward. It is my favorite resource and my first go to place. Phill is consistent in maintaining it for so many years in a row, that I cannot thank him enough for what he does.
DFIR Diva is a new blog that offensively entered and thrived in the DFIR blog area. Great content, huge amount of work was put in it and well deserved.
DFIR Book of the Year
Cyber and Digital Forensic Investigations by Nhien-An Le-Khac and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo
DFIR Article of the Year
https://atropos4n6.com/windows/extract-vsns-from-windows-partition4diagnostic-evtx/
For this category I will nominate our article at the end of the year 2020, which is because the information included in it, helped me solve a really difficult case back in the time. I hope it helped more folks than us.
DFIR Social Media Contributor of the Year
- 1. Ryan Benson is my 1st choice for this year. Ryan managed to keep posting new content daily for a whole year. Like WOW. This is incredible and I feel he deserves this award the most. Ryan congrats!
- 2. DFIR Diva managed to keep posting new trainings, new conferences, new content so often that is the definite runner up for this award. Congrats too!
DFIR Newcomer of the Year
- 1. DFIR Diva
- 2. James Duffy
Both of these young folks have had a great year putting up new content, contributing in multiple ways in this community. Your future in this field will be great and I truly wish you all the best for the years to come. Keep up the excellent work you do! Hats off to you both!
DFIR Mentor of the Year
Jessica Hyde
DFIR Resource of the Year
- 1. This week in 4n6 https://thisweekin4n6.com/
- 2. Digital Forensics Discord Server
My favorite resources are the aforementioned ones. Phill and Andrew created 2 of the most useful and resourceful resources. They both deserve this award!
DFIR Team of the Year
- 1. Magnet Forensics
- 2. Oxygen Detective
- 3. Cellebrite
All of the teams were great this year. They provided support, guides and insights on a plethora of subjects. Thank you all and wish you keep supporting us the way you do!
These were my nominations for this year’s awards. Wish you all, the best of luck. It feels great to be a part of this community. If you have not nominated yet, here is the link: