My 2021 Forensic 4Cast Awards Nominations

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It's that time of year again (no not March Madness), the nominations for the 2021 Forensic 4Cast awards are live. 

https://forms.gle/r7XwVwdoUFR4We4X9

Here are who and what I'm nominating this year:

DFIR Commercial Tool of the Year

Magnet AXIOM continues to be my go-to tool for all things computer and mobile related forensics wise. I use it by far more than anything else. Looking forward to what v5 has in store coming up in May.

Cellebrite UFED/Physical Analyzer is also getting nomination from me with some great additions this past year to the product. Some highly requested changes seem to be in store for PA in the coming months as well.

DFIR Non-commercial Tool of the Year

There are so many great tools that fall into this category so it's always  hard to leave some out. 

ALEAPP/iLEAPP
Alexis has been killing it in terms of adding parsers to the arsenal for these, I may have added a few myself!

EZ Toolkit
Eric continues to add new updates and tools to his excellent toolkit. The latest includes SRUM and User Access Logs parsers.

Autopsy
I underutilize this one so much but it still is one of the most fully complemented free forensic suites.

DFIR Show of the Year

Jessica has had so many fantastic guests on the show over the past many months. I look forward to each week's conversation with a leading expert in the field.

Heather has rounded up so many great guests this past year. The quick half hour workshops have been always fantastic too!

DFIR Blog of the Year

There are so many great blogs out there but had to limit myself to only 3:

The Binary Hick (https://thebinaryhick.blog/)
Each of Josh's posts are so thorough and well written.

Sarah dives so far down the rabbit hole with anything and everything Apple.

Shameless plug for myself, I've been trying to expand and get a post up almost weekly for the past few months. As always I would appreciate any votes.

DFIR Book of the Year

The only one that sticks out (and that I own) is the Practical Mobile Forensics 4th Edition, so guess I'll go with that (Link here).

DFIR Social Media Contributor of the Year

His #DailyDFIR were inspiring how he was able to find something for 366 days straight

DFIR Degree Program or Training Class of the Year

I have to do another shameless plug here, for my alma mater Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

I'll also add the Python Study Group.

DFIR Newcomer of the Year

The DFIR Diva herself has carved a path above the rest with her incredible site and resources.

DFIR Mentor of the Year

He's taught me more in coding and Python than I ever thought I'd learn in the past year. He really does so much for the community from his tools to his Python class and so much more.

Other than being one of the most amazing person's I know, she is a constant shining light in this community, from all that she contributes!

DFIR Resource of the Year

So many resources to name but here are my favorites:

Lots of links and resources for knowledge levels from beginner to expert.

This Week In 4n6 (https://thisweekin4n6.com/)
My Monday morning reading consists of the past week's updates across the DFIR community, big thanks to Phill for the consistancy.

Digital Forensics Discord (https://discord.com/invite/mWMJWuu)
Lots of conversations to be had on the Discord page with so many different varieties of channels, endless communications, and updates. Thank you to Andrew for keeping it running.

Forensics StartMe by Stark 4N6 (https://start.me/p/q6mw4Q/forensics)
Shameless plug #3, I've compiled a great bookmark page for the resources I use constantly and it also serves as a blog and YouTube RSS feed. I can only hope people also get benefit out of it as much as I do.

DFIR Team of the Year

Magnet Forensics and Cellebrite are my nominations, not much needs to be said about this fantastic organizations that continue to push out tools updates, resources, training and much more.

Thanks for hosting again Lee :)