Virtualization and Forensics: A Digital Forensic Investigator's Guide to Virtual Environments

Virtualization and Forensics: A Digital Forensic Investigators Guide to Virtual Environments provides an introduction to virtualized environments and their implications on forensic investigations. It emphasizes the need for organizations using virtualization to be proactive rather than reactive. Being proactive means learning the methods in this book to train staff, so when an incident occurs, they can quickly perform the forensics and minimize the damage to their systems.
The book is organized into three parts. Part I deals with the virtualization process and the different types of virtualized environments. It explains how virtualization happens along with the various methods of virtualization, hypervisors, and the main categories of virtualization. It discusses server virtualization, desktop virtualization, and the various portable virtualization programs, emulators, and appliances. Part II details how virtualization interacts with the basic forensic process. It describes the methods used to find virtualization artifacts in dead and live environments, and identifies the virtual activities that affect the examination process. Part III addresses advanced virtualization issues, such as the challenges of virtualized environments, cloud computing, and the future of virtualization.

• Named a 2011 Best Digital Forensics Book by InfoSec Reviews
• Gives you the end-to-end knowledge needed to identify server, desktop, and portable virtual environments, including: VMware, Parallels, Microsoft, and Sun
• Covers technological advances in virtualization tools, methods, and issues in digital forensic investigations
• Explores trends and emerging technologies surrounding virtualization technology