Satish Bommisetty

Satish Bommisetty is a security analyst working for a Fortune 500 company. His primary areas of interest include iOS forensics, iOS application security, and web application security. He has presented at international conferences, such as ClubHACK and C0C0n. He is also one of the core members of the Hyderabad OWASP chapter. He has identified and disclosed vulnerabilities within the websites of Google, Facebook, Yandex, PayPal, Yahoo!, AT&T, and more, and is listed in their hall of fame.

Rohit Tamma

Rohit Tamma is a security analyst working for a Fortune 500 company. His interests lie in mobile forensics, Android application security, and web application security. He is experienced in performing vulnerability assessments and penetration testing of a range of applications, including web and mobile applications. He lives in Hyderabad, India, where he spends time with his parents and friends.

Heather Mahalik

Heather Mahalik is the Mobile Exploitation Team Lead at Basis Technology and the Course Lead for the SANS Smartphone Forensics course. With over 11 years’ experience in digital forensics, she currently focuses her energy on mobile device investigations, forensic course development and instruction, and research on smartphone forensics. Prior to joining Basis Technology, Heather worked at Stroz Friedberg and as a contractor for the U.S. Department of State Computer Investigations and Forensics Lab. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University. She has authored white papers and forensic course material, and has taught hundreds of courses worldwide for law enforcement, Government, IT, eDiscovery, and other forensic professionals focusing on mobile devices and digital forensics.

Customer Reviews

wQuant
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Good but already getting dated
14 October 2015 – Published on Books-For-Everyone.com
Verified Purchase
Not a bad book as an introduction, but this field of study changes so much you are better off with journals and researching online. I bought it for a class. It is still pretty fresh, 2014 publish, but its already dated in parts. Not the authors fault as phone hardware and software moves quick.

Scribe
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is an excellent forensics overview of where important files can be found …
4 December 2014 – Published on Books-For-Everyone.com
Verified Purchase
This is an excellent forensics overview of where important files can be found on multiple mobile platforms. One of the biggest challenges for a mobile examiner is the ability to shift gears to a different operating system and perform a competent exam on short notice. this book is useful for the main file/data locations where key info lives. It is not meant for a deep and detailed analysis of specific operating system point release nuances, but there are other references that do offer a deep dive when needed. The title is exactly what the book does. It is a useful reference.

M. Eskridge
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars
25 March 2015 – Published on Books-For-Everyone.com
Format: eBook Verified Purchase
Great item at a great price. Thank you.

ITJustices
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars
20 October 2014 – Published on Books-For-Everyone.com
Verified Purchase
Excellent eBook 🙂

Abhinavbom
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Descent guide to mobile forensics
15 December 2014 – Published on Books-For-Everyone.com
Practical mobile forensics is a descent starter guide for those who are new to this and are willing to go a step ahead.
The book covers most of the major mobile platforms. The best part was the inclusion of devices like ipads and tablets. Even though the underlying operating system is same either in tablet or mobile phone, but some generic hardware differences can lead you to a catch-22 situation.
Here is a quick breakthrough based on chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Mobile Forensics

This is a “getting started” chapter with quick introduction to basic terminologies in mobile forensics.

Chapter 2,3,4,5 and 6 : iOS platform
The next consecutive chapters are based on iOS platform and its supporting devices. The second chapter gives a quick look inside the platform. The next chapter discuss about setting up the forensic environment and its required dependencies. It covers steps like: getting and setting iOS firmware, operating modes, iDid etc. The fourth chapter is about acquiring data from iOS backup storage. The chapter nicely explains the backup structure which helps building a better understanding of how iOS structures the data inside the device.
Chapter 5 is all about analysing data extracted in previous 2 chapters. The 6th chapter is the conclusive chapter for iOS platform. It deals with various forensic tools like EIFT, Oxygen forensic and UFED.

Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11

Chapter 7 to 11 is a series of text dedicated to android platform. I liked the Android section more than iOS owing to the fact that iOS is very much tool driven and there are not many open source tools available. For Android, there are far more possibilities to explore.
Chapter 7 and 8 deals with the basics of Android OS and setting up the forensic environment.
Chapter 9 covers the data extraction techniques. Not to mention that getting root is the first step. Chapter 10 deals with some quick techniques on data recovery.
Chapter 11 covers tips for APK or Application analysis. The chapter discuss briefly how Apps can be extracted and reverse engineered. I was expecting a more in-depth explanation here since malicious APKs are the most sort after subjects for mobile forensic professionals.

Chapter 12: This chapter is an introductory analysis of Windows OS for mobile devices. The chapter covers details like the security structure, basic forensics etc.

Chapter 13: This chapter deals with Blackberry Forensics.

Overall, the book is a good introduction to mobile application forensic and has some pretty interesting things to read and try.
It is highly recommended to try out the practical demonstrations on your own to figure out the real challenges involved during forensics.

The book lays too much emphasis on ready-made tools, which is in a way a good and fast way of doing stuff, but for advanced users, they might want to see some core stuff like building custom forensic tools and techniques.