My 2019 Forensic 4cast Awards Nominations



It's that time of year to get your nominations in for the Forensic 4cast awards. It's the 10th year Lee Whitfield has been doing this so applaud him for that. Here are who I am nominating:


DFIR Commercial Tool of the Year
While there were a few options here that I like, I have to go with Magnet AXIOM. From it being able to do both computer and mobile forensics, they have added memory analysis as well as custom artifacts to the mix to take it to the next level. The consistent updates is a huge plus as well (especially compared to other dated products).

DFIR Non-commercial Tool of the Year
I have three nominations here:
  • EZ Toolkit - Eric Zimmerman is constantly added new tools and new features to his ever growing free toolkit, from the likes of MFTECmd to ShellbagsExplorer to TimelineExplorer, you need these in your kit.
  • LRC - If you haven't used Brian Moran's Live Response Collection, it just works.
  • Autopsy - About as full fledged of a forensic GUI you will get for free, plus their are plenty of Python plugins that can be added to parse even more information
DFIR Show of the Year
How can you not nominate the Forensic Lunch here? Dave and Matt continue to put out quality content on YouTube a few times a month with excellent guests in the community (shameless plug, I was one of them!).

I'd like to also give a nomination to 13Cubed. Breaking down artifacts in a way that you can understand it better and more simpler is pretty awesome.

DFIR Blog of the Year
Dave gets another nod here with https://www.hecfblog.com/. His daily blog series and content creation the past year is tough to beat.

DFIR Degree Program or Training Class of the Year
Another shameless plug, I have to nominate my alma mater Bloomsburg University of PA for this. They have expanded the program so much since I've graduated and continue to teach quality content to foster the next generation of forensicators.

DFIR Newcomer of the Year
Can I nominate myself here? I mean Jessica Hyde did. In all seriousness I'd be grateful and humbled to be nominated.

I'm nominating Justin Boncaldo. I think his research has been fantastic that he's published out on his blog and look forward to what he puts out the rest of 2019.

DFIR Resource of the Year
Two nominations for this one:
  • https://thisweekin4n6.com/ - Phil Moore rounds up the best of the best each week, and it's my usual reading material come Monday morning.
  • https://www.dfir.training/ - Brett Shavers continues to add to the site which now encompasses tool lists, blog lists, news, research, and everything in between
DFIR Team of the Year
Magnet Forensics, they put out a great product that gets updated constantly to keep pace with the every growing demands of forensics and they take feedback from costumers and implement into them just as fast. Jad Saliba and the team also have a kick-ass summit so I've heard...

Digital Forensic Investigator of the Year
There are so many to name here but here's who I'm going with:
  • Sarah Edwards - Here work on APOLLO (and posts too) show why she is the go-to person for Apple forensics in my opinion
  • Phill Moore - From his weekly digest, his monthly podcast, and his own blog, I don't know how he finds time for anything, kudos
  • Alexi Brignoni - Blog updates galore for 2018, a Github repo full of great SQL queries, as well as UsRT for Android parsing
So get out there and nominate now, the deadline is May 14th.

https://forensic4cast.com/forensic-4cast-awards/2019-awards/