There are so many books already on the market that target computer forensics. I wrote the book to place the information in the hands of people who need it but cannot afford to hire a computer forensic expert. If you ever met someone who not only felt betrayed but also frustrated because they did not know how to find the information they needed, you would understand the need for such a book. They see all the signs but are told by their spouse that they are crazy. They need the answer to the age old question; Am I crazy? It also helps them to bring closure to their relationship, which gives them the ability to move on with their life.

I also want to point out that this book is about analyzing computers. This book can be used to show parents how to analyze their kid’s computer, it can show a corporation how to image and analyze a computer to support workplace investigations. Analyzing a computer is analyzing a computer regardless of what the reason is.

Obviously this line of work is an evolving arena. As new technologies emerge, new techniques need to be found. Microsoft has made a lot of noise lately about the new version of Windows (Vista). This is supposedly a much more secure system, including the ability to encrypt the entire hard drive. How will you attack a problem like this?

There are already decryption utilities that we use to decrypt all of Microsoft products, this will be one more. However, there are technologies that are already out that can make our job harder. These are file-shredding utilities, which overwrite data numerous times making it impossible to recover the data. However, we often get some of the data back because users get lazy in using the shredding utility and some shredding utilities are not the best quality and do a horrible job.

I am sure that over the years you have come across some pretty amusing finds. Is there one in particular that sticks in your mind?

A woman claimed that she never was in a specific town to mail a letter that she was accused of mailing. She stated that she has never been to the town or the post office where it was mailed from. Her testimony stated that she wouldn’t even know how to get to that town because she never heard of it.

However, I found MapQuest directions on her computer that had the starting point of her home address and the ending point as the post office. The very post office that she claimed that she did not know how to get there.

When I am not annoying authors with my inane questions I am teaching computer skills to a mostly adult, and low technical level students. I have developed all of my books to make heavy use of pictures and diagrams; this breaks down the literacy barrier and makes the learning/example process much simpler. You use straight text in your ‘how to’ sections, I have to ask why?