Aafrin.com

More Than 50 Freelance Photographers Fan Page From Facebook

Aafrin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:36:47 +0000

Here is a list of freelance photographers fan-page from Facebook. The list was compiled by hand and some of the page are relatively new. Most of the photographers were from Malaysia and some of them are from other countries as well. Please do look at their portfolio and share this post with others. Also please do suggest, if there are any others fan page links that can be added to this article.

Liquid Drops Photography

Aafrin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 06:53:19 +0000

Here are some snaps that I had captured recently. The images was captured in RAW format with shutter speed of 1/250 and aperture F8. ISO 200 had been set to minimize the noise level in taken picture . The captured images was then processed in Photomatix PRO. Check out more stills @ Facebook page here.

50 Twitter Profile Must Follow For Computer / Digital Forensic Enthusiast

Aafrin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:54:40 +0000

It has been a while, since my last post due to hectic schedule and currently chasing some deadlines on projects while working on this article. After a while on hibernation period without any posts, i managed to compile a small list of computer / digital forensic tweeple (people who tweets) who are either represented by themselves or a prominent organization. These people provides some very informative resources to the Digital Forensic community. There are many more profiles out there and will try to update the list as the time flies.

Forensic Resources | A forensic science consultancy firm specialising in expert witness reports in all forensic disciplines.
VFAC | Virtual Forum against Cybercrime (VFAC).
Fred Lane | Vermont writer, attorney, lecturer, and expert witness in the field of computer forensics.
Elinor Mills | CNET News.com Internet security and privacy reporter with a zest for life.
Martin Greif | Software executive with sales, marketing & software development experience. Interested in Internet Privacy and Online Marketing.
Ohio ICAC | The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
Tracy Kitten | BankInfoSecurity.com is a leading site dedicated to security news and fraud trends impacting the financial space.
The Investigator | The Investigator is an exciting digital magazine and website aimed at practitioners and academics in the field of investigative practice.
HTCIA | Official account of the International High Technology Crime Investigation Association. Maintained by@christammiller & @managerjosh.
Wally Gonzalez | Cyber Cop Detective for a 4 letter Police Department, Computer Forensic Analyst, Tech Junkie, Geeky yet normal I think, Rumored to be Human.
DigitalForensicsMag | Digital Forensics Magazine is a quarterly features and news magazine from the world of computer and cyber crime and digital forensics.
ComputerForensics | The Computer Forensics Wiki of Articles, Videos, Papers and Events of interest to people working in Computer Forensics and e-Discovery. Call us at 614-947-3608.
CyberCrime101 | A podcast that covers everything from Computer & Internet Safety to Information Security & Computer Forensics, hosted by Joe Garcia (@jgarcia62).
Symantec Security | Views and updates from the Symantec Threat Intelligence (Security Response) team on all things security.
Sandro Süffert | CTO of Techbiz Forensics. Security, Incident Response & Digital Forensics (en & pt). Disclaimer: RTs are not endorsements, just interesting finds.
J-Michael Roberts | Computer guy. Digital forensics guy. Hacker. Slayer of spam. Barbeque pitmaster. Cake engineer. Expert at nothing. Opinions are mine alone. May be joking.
Mac Forensics | Digital forensics with a focus on Mac forensic investigation.
Digital Forensics | Digital Forensics Specialists , Supporting eDiscovery, Forensics, and Low Enforcement Professionals
AccessDataGroup | a leading provider of E-Discovery, Forensics & Cyber Security software.
J. Ryan Winter | Canadian private investigator, entrepreneur, blackberry addict, single father of 3 and believer in karma with a love of soccer, flying, technology, Lego & Dogs.
Forensic Examiner | The world's leading peer-reviewed forensic magazine. www.acfei.com.
Forensic Computers | Supports the Forensic community worldwide with Forensic Workstations.
ACFEI | The American College of Forensic Examiners Institute is the world’s largest professional membership association representing forensic examiners.
Data Recovery E-book | Data Recovery Engineer and Consultant.
IFO Forensic Experts | IFO is registered forensic and investigative Company, it is a panel of experts from various fields of forensic science. Email at forensic@ifsr.in.
Forensic News Blog | Working with Forensic Resources Ltd, Forensic Blogger updates Twitter and other online web sources with the latest Forensic News from around the globe.
Forensic News & Info | Computer & comms security info including the latest in PC & data forensic tools / tricks.
Hal Pomeranz | Computer Forensics and Information Security. SANS Institute Faculty Fellow. Always looking for new challenges. And lately, always on the road.
Eric Cole | Dr. Cole is a cyber security professional & tri-athlete. He is a senior fellow with SANS and cyber security consultant.
Jesse G. Lands | Malware, Computer Forensics, Incident Response, Advanced Persistent Threat, Fencer.
Sarah Edwards | Mac Nerd, Forensic Analyst, Reluctant Twitter-er.
Alex Bond | I'm a computer security professional eagerly learning about digital forensics/incident response. GCFA certified, eager to learn more.
Chris Pogue | Computer Forensic Investigator @ Trustwave.
Jonathan Rajewski | Digital Forensic/Information Assurance Professor@ChamplainColleg, Forensic Examiner - Vermont ICAC, Lethal Forensicator, Marathoner, Bonsai enthusiast.
Aaron | Family-man and digital forensics enthusiast, student and teacher, and fan of all things tech. Author of thehttp://www.cfinformer.com blog and @cfinformer.
Matt Churchill | Digital forensics aficionado, Cyber investigation enthusiast, social engineer contributor.
Luby Novitovic | Computer Forensics, law enforcement, MMA fan.
Dan Philpott | Federal Cybersecurity, Information Assurance & Cloud Computing security, policy and practice. Always looking for interesting projects.
Lee Whitfield | Digital Forensic Investigator. Founder of Forensic 4cast. Lethal Forensicator.
Derek Newton | Sharing thoughts on Information Security with a focus on incident response and forensics.
Tom Yarrish | Digital Forensic Analyst.
Mac_Lovin | Computer Forensics, specializing in Macs. Teach Mac forensics to LEOs & corp examiners. Adjunct faculty in the computer forensics program at a local college.
Chris Curran | Computer Forensics Specialist for local L.E., JC Professor of CF, and Mac Addict.
Stacey Edwards | Digital forensic analyst to exercise the mind, P90X to exercise the body, singer to forget about the mind and body.
J.Levy | A developer on The Volatility Project, Senior Skunk at Terremark and (computer|digital) forensics enthusiast
Ken Pryor | Police Officer--Computer Forensics examiner--GCFA.
David Kovar | Computer forensics, ediscovery, investigations, flying. Always learning.
Sean Morrissey | Computer/Mobile Forensic Analyst, Mac & iPhone Author, Speaker.
Cindy Murphy | Detective & Digital Forensic Examiner, Madison WI - 'The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.' Helen Keller.
Michael Cloppert | Computer security intelligence analyst, scientist, engineer, jazz trombonist.
Campbell Solutions | Campbell Solutions provides digital forensics, electronic data discovery and expert testimony services to law firms, corporations and government agencies.

This list was last updated on 27th September 2011. Please do update via comment if you have any other informative Twitter profiles relating to digital forensics. The list above had been obtained from public resource like search engine, blogs and twitter lists. If anyone or any organization would like their link removed from the list above, please do leave a comment here.

Computer Aided Software Engineering Tool’s Classification

Aafrin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:09:51 +0000

In todays article, we will look into CASE Tool’s Classification. Some websites and books, suggests several theories to explain and classify the CASE tools. In general the CASE tools can be classified into Upper CASE tools, Lower CASE tools and Integrated CASE tools (I-CASE). Each of it will be discussed separately on the latter part of this article.

Upper CASE tools. The upper case tools are tools that focuses on activities associated with the early stages of system development. The early development mentioned here is more towards the planning and analysis phases of software development. The upper CASE tool provides strategic planning, breakdown of goals, objective and construction, flow of the products that will be developed in a graphical perspective. To help analyze the application, it support traditional diagrammatic languages such as ER diagrams, Data flow diagram, Structure charts, Decision Trees, Decision tables, etc. It’s also known as diagrammatic tools, since it involves with wide range of diagrams. The information collected via requirement gathering are fed into upper CASE tools and presented in diagrammatic way as mentioned above.

Lower CASE tools. The lower CASE tools focuses on the later implementation of system development. The mentioned CASE tools are used more on the system construction that involves with designing, coding, testing and implementation. Some lower CASE tools can even provide services to the maintenance phase where it can keep track the bugs fixing procedure and other supporting activity within its user interface (UI). It works and depends on the data provided by upper CASE tools. The lower CASE tools will process the data from the upper CASE tools and provide designated output to the application developer. For example, the code will be generated based in the diagrams created on the upper CASE tools. Take note that this tools only assist in the software development and not a fully fledged developing tool. The Lower CASE tools is also known as non-diagrammatic tools

Integrated CASE tools. It’s also known as Cross Life-Cycle tools. The tools act as bridge that connects the upper and lower CASE tools together. The following tools provide mechanism for sharing information among all tools contained in the environment. Here are some of the function that the tool can perform Enable changes to items to be tracked to other information items, Support communication among software engineers, Provide version control and overall configuration management. I-CASE also allows direct access to any tool contained in the environment, which means they developer can gets hands on information from both the upper and lower case tools at one place instead of getting through different tools.

In layman terms we can say that the Upper CASE tools is used to plan and analysis the system that will be developed, while the Lower CASE tools assists the developer in system construction. The Integrated CASE tool (I-CASE) connects them together.

Understanding The Basics Of Project Management

Aafrin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:00:27 +0000

Project Management is a process where a project is planned, organized, managed throughout from start to end. In project management, specific knowledge, skills, tools and techniques are used in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectation from a project. In layman terms, project management can be described as a discipline set of rules that are created to ensure that the project goes smoothly without any disruptions. The project management is made of a number of sub process interlinked together. The processes are Initiation, Planning, Executing, Controlling, and Closing. Each process has its own objective and scope.Some people look into online management degrees when they want to learn about project management.

A typical Project Management’s main phases

As mentioned in the paragraph above, the project management consist of several process linked together. In the following section, we will see how the each stage allows the tools and techniques to be utilized to facilitate Information System (IS) development.

Firstly, the project management starts with project initiation. It is a process of formally recognizing that a new project exists and the project should be made to further stages. There are certain tools and techniques in this phase that helps the development team to plan the project carefully. Some of the methods involved are assigning a project manager for the project; indentify the stakeholders, preparing business charter and project charter documentation. In layman terms, we can say that the project initiation is where the project starts takes place and assisted with the methods from the project management.

The project planning is the second phase and is designed for the purpose of devise and maintains workable scheme to ensure the project meets and fulfil the company needs. The tools and techniques that are involved at this phase is work breakdown structure (WBS), preparation of project schedule (Gantt chart, Network Diagram) and a list of possible risk associated with the project. The charts mentioned are created with the help of specialized software such as Microsoft Project. This chart will provide transparencies on the system that is going to be developed. Some of the key benefits are the team members will get to know their role, the total duration of the project, important and crucial elements that need attention on the system development.

Next, the project execution is the actual phase where the system development takes places. It takes the most time and resources among the project management stages. During the end of the project execution, an actual end product is produced. At this stage, the milestone which was planned in the earlier stages is achieved. The milestone that comes for the project management indicates/informs the developer that the target has been achieved and they can move on to next to do list for the system development.

When the project execution takes place, there is another phase in project management that comes into action in parallel with project execution. The phase is project controlling and it involves measuring the progress towards the project review. It ensures that the development team meets the project objective and works according to the plan. There is a report that enlists the progress of the project which will be used for review at any point. The report can also help to uncover who are involved with what operation and how is the progress of it. This will enable the development team works in a controlled manner.

Here comes the final part of the project management which is project closing. The stage involves the stakeholder and clients gaining an acceptance of the final products. There are some tools and techniques that are associated in this stage. The things are such as delivery of project files, documentation of development progress, formal acceptance and archiving of source files.

In nutshell there are several tools and techniques that can be implemented in different stages of project management. These tools and techniques will help and assists in producing a final deliverable of a new IS development. Without a proper project management, the project may come to a point where the team members are unaware of what’s going on and causes the project to fail.

The Evolution of Cyber Space & Personal Privacy.

Aafrin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:11:12 +0000

Based on Wikipedia, The invention of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), by a small research team at the head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and United States Department of Defense had lead to the creation of today’s world most powerful communication tool “Internet”.

At the early days of Internet invention, it was merely aimed at sharing of knowledgeable information among the computer users nevertheless their location. The sharing of information was targeted to the academics, government and private sectors in order to increase their productivity. The networks aren’t available to the public at that point as it was expensive to afford the connection.

With growing economy and fast paced globalization, soon internet was made available to the public too. From the day internet becomes available to public up to end 1990’s, the internet rapidly grown and had become a gold mine for all the information seekers. The stored information grew from several gigabytes into millions of terabytes and counting toward petabytes by now.

With the introduction of the term Web 2.0 by Darcy DiNucci., more and more sophisticated commercial website had pop up as how the mushrooms grew after a heavy rain. These sites gave some niche services that are targeted towards public internet users which currently amount to 1.6 billion users according to Google’s public record. The service offered by the website either was given free or charged with a minimal amount as service charges.

As the time pass by, the commercial sites started harvesting personal data of user by offering more and more exclusive features to the users on their site. The users who are not tech junkie started falling as prey while the predators gained the benefit. The harvested data are then used for many purposes from e- marketing to social engineering.

The personal information gathered has often fallen into wrong hands and caused serious problem to the users. Public and many online groups either political or apolitical, has started criticizing on the personal privacy issue and the matter has became an unsolved debate. Some thinks that it’s good while other think the other way. The media since then started propagating the personal privacy issue to promote and increase their circulation.

As the word privacy is coined everywhere, but what does the privacy stands for? The word privacy may sounds similar to piracy and many often get confused between the words “Privacy” and “Piracy”. Both the words are separate entities and bring different meaning. The word privacy was derived from Latin. In Latin, it is known as “privatus" which means separated from the rest. The term privacy is also often misinterpreted with term anonymity. In layman terms, the term privacy can means the condition where the information being concealed or hidden.

In addition to that, when the word privacy and personal are added together as personal privacy, it forms a new meaning. The personal privacy means the information can only be shared within a circle of specific people that are familiar or granted access by the information owner. Some of the information that falls into the category is healthcare records, financial transactions, residence cum geographic records, recent activities and many more.

So when the personal information reaches internet, your personal privacy are at stake. Internet privacy or also know as online privacy consists of privacy over the media on the Internet: the ability to control what information one reveals about themselves over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. Many people use the term to mean universal Internet privacy: every user of the Internet possessing Internet privacy.

The invasion of a person’s privacy is similar to reading a person’s personal diary or journal. Through the rapidly updated information in internet, this information are scattered in the magnetic disk across the blocks of server connected with fiber optics around the globe.

In the area of personal privacy there is a large amount of information stored on computers either offline or in the clouds online through the accounts creation in prominent social network websites and others. Consider the following: medical records, insurance records, pharmacy records, arrest records, employment records, bank and credit records, social security records, government data banks, tax records, school records, phone records, video rental records, cable TV records, and mailing lists. The above list is not all inclusive.

It is a good starting point to think about what types of information may be stored on you. Not all personal information is easily accessible, but some is. How much information do you want others to have access to? How much protection should be given to records that are stored online?

Many aren’t aware of the risk putting this information available on the internet. Even the information that is something secret between one another can be accessed as long the information is in internet. There are tricky terms and condition on those sites that offers you free service, security loops holes, and fake web application. These put the user’s information into risk and may fall into wrong hand.

Here is a short example on what can happen through the invasion personal privacy through social network and internet. Assume that your girl friend is having affair with another guy and she just tweeted about their date that happened moments ago. You can be notified about her tweets in near real time, if you are following her on twitter account. The relationship might be complicated between you and her but a simple tweet can turn it into disaster. Therefore it is important for each and every internet user knew the risk/impact of putting their personal information online.

Example : Circuit Switching VS Packet Switching

Aafrin — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:56:40 +0000

In the following article, an example of circuit switching and packet switching had been included. Hope the article helps the reader to achieve better understanding on how both type of switching can processes and routes data in the data link layer.Those of you who desire advanced studies in technology may look into online masters degree programs.

Circuit Switching

A best example for the circuit switching would be a telephone network. In the diagram above the caller “A” dials specific number to connect to the caller “B”. Once caller “A” finishes dialling the destination number, it reaches the telephone switch. The switch searches and select any one of the available routes to the destination. The connection is established when the caller “B” answers his phone. The red colour line on the diagram above shows the connection path During the whole conversation between caller “A” and “B”, the established connection will be used. If anyone of them hangs off the call the established connection will be disconnected immediately. They will need to reconnect again.

Packet Switching

Internet Protocol (IP) is an example of packet switching. When a person sends a message via appropriate application and protocols to another user. The messages are divided into packet which consists of chunks of data in small quantity. The packets take any of the available path to the destination. Upon reaching the destination, packets are reassembled into the original message.

An In Depth Look Into Internet Forensics – The Defensive Weapon For Cyber Crime

Aafrin — Thu, 05 May 2011 13:11:24 +0000

Because of the increasing popularity of internet all over the world, unscrupulous individuals use it as the platform of committing crimes. Internet forensic is a sub ranch of forensic science. The term forensic science has not been defined conclusively, but it includes mainly the use of science to collect evidence and prove cases in courts of law. There are those who take classes from forensic science colleges to learn more about these subjects.

Very many crimes have been perpetrated over the internet in the past and they continue to be at the present. Criminals rely on the internet because it connects the whole world. Security agencies have a hard time fighting cyber crimes because it may involve culprits who are not within their jurisdiction. The person committing the crime online may be many miles away from where the victim of the internet crime is.

As internet security systems are developed, the internet crimes perpetrators device new ways of countering them. The truth is that all online transactions are mostly under constant threat of attack. If you own a computer, you know the way you are always put under constant threat of computer viruses attack.

All those who own websites, store vital information online or transact over the internet are always under constant threat of falling victims of internet attack. Internet forensic is therefore very important in making the internet a safe platform of transacting. All the law enforcement authorities in the world need to cooperate so that the issue of lack of jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute those who commit crimes over the internet does not arise.

Internet forensic has been necessitated by the fact the global economic growth may be retarded unless this vice is countered and stopped by all means. Most of the crimes committed online are serious in nature because they involve money fraud, planning of crimes like bank robberies and terrorism, propagating hate between groups of people who hold different views, internet hacking, introduction of viruses to computers, identity thefts and intrusion of privacy and confidentially among many other crimes.

The crime which most persons commit knowingly or unknowingly over the internet is violation of the intellectual property rights. Many persons all over the world download audio music, videos, movies and many other copyrighted works everyday; and to them, this may seem normal.

You can nowadays be easily tracked down through the internet forensic technology regardless of where you have committed the crime. The law enforcement authorities can track down the IP address of the network which was used in committing the crime and they will finally catch up with you. You should note that some internet crimes can be prosecuted by several states because of their extraterritorial or universal nature.

Top 5 Reason Why CASE Tools Shouldn’t Be Used In Software Engineering

Aafrin — Mon, 02 May 2011 05:47:25 +0000

In this article, we will look into the potential risk that might be caused by the use of CASE tools in software engineering.

Poor Return. Organization may have implemented case technologies to reduce the development cost. In order to acquire good case tools, they are required to invest huge sum of money to buy license for the case tools. The investment that they do may not offer return as expected. This is because the case tools that they have bought to use may not very effective to the organization as predicted. It will results in the organization to dump the CASE tools and opting to alternative way of developing application.

Case tools under performance. Sometimes the CASE tools which support a project might not perform as anticipated. This will result in the delay of the project which will also increase the development cost. The hardware requirement and software requirement may cause the tools to underperform. The organization’s computer system may not meet the requirement set by the CASE tools vendor; therefore the tools will not produce an optimum performance. Apart from that, the organization might not acquired additional 3^rd party tools that comes together with the CASE tools which is need in certain part of the CASE tools. E.g. The case tools need an additional plug-in to convert existing report in PDF but the organization doesn’t have/installed the plug-in in their system Besides that, the underperformance may also be caused by the unavailability or lacking of certain features that needed for software development. The might requires some latest technology for the development which is not supported by the existing CASE tools.

Accurate Input Required. The system analyst who performs the software requirement gathering should collect accurate information on what user need and requirements. Failure to do so will lead into wrong business logic being model and fed into CASE tools. It will produce an output that is different from what user needs. In that case the organization might be required to redo the entire system again on correct business logics. A good interaction is a must between the system analyst and the client to ensure both parties achieve a mutual understanding on the system requirement study.

Fixed development approach. The CASE tools consist of predefined method and steps that should be followed in order to develop an application / system. This is similar to driving a rail on its track. The creativity of the developer is limited and he/she is required to work within the framework set by the CASE tools. For example, the developer may know a simpler solution to business logic for the application that will be developed but he/she can’t implement them. It is they have to work within the CASE tools and not able to overrule it. Modification cannot be done to the methodology set by the CASE tools. There is only option as such in binary either you use it or you don’t use it. This is not a healthy option for IT organization that plan to grow well in the software development field.

Reverse Engineering. Since CASE tools are programmed to conduct automated task. The developers may familiar of the case tools method. It is very good for the developer to have understanding on how the CASE tools since its works as a part for software engineering. On the other hand, it can also help others who are not part of the developed system, to decode or there are possibilities that an application developed using CASE tools to be reversed engineered. What does reverse engineering means?

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking something (e.g., a mechanical device, electronic component, or software program) apart and analyzing its workings in detail to be used in maintenance or to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing without utilizing any physical part of the original.

Based on the explanation above we can clearly see that the reverse engineering will allow one to exactly find the modelling and method used to create an application. He / She then can replicate it and produces his own version of the application based on the information gathered from reverse engineering. The reverse engineering process can’t be done by everyone; those who are planning to do so must possess special skills and knowledge to do it.

Fix : Windows Management Instrumentation Error During SQL Server 2008 Installation

Aafrin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:55:11 +0000

My development environment failed the prerequisite of SQL Server Express R2 Edition numerous time. It had passed all the requirements expect the Windows Management Instrumentation. It shows that the service is either not running or failed to start. At first, tried manually rebooting the service from the administration tools and re-run the prerequisite but still failed. Even rebooted the computer few times but still the same error persist.

After going through several online source, I came up with three different solution to fix the issue. Refer to the solution below. It may not work for everyone and depends on the OS version too.

Method 3 : Batch File

Copy the code below into notepad and save it as .bat file. Run the file as administrator on your machine. It will take few minutes to completes its task. Once the batch file proccessing complete, reboot the system and install the SQL Server Express R2 Edition.

The code was taken from an online source and it worked for me. I am using Windows 7 Ultimate.

net stop winmgmt
c:
cd %systemroot%\system32\wbem
rd /S /Q repository

regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\scecli.dll
regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\userenv.dll

mofcomp cimwin32.mof
mofcomp cimwin32.mfl
mofcomp rsop.mof
mofcomp rsop.mfl
for /f %%s in ('dir /b /s *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %%s
for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mof') do mofcomp %%s
for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mfl') do mofcomp %%s
echo DONE reboot
pause

Method 2 : System Restore

This is yet another method suggested by several experts. By restoring the system to an earlier stage the issue can be fixed. Many user said the following method worked most of the time. However it may also make changes to other parts of the machine. Please make sure you have all the neccesary backups before running the system restore. In case anything goes wrong, backups would become handy.

Method 1 : Formatting

Formatting could be the last option, if all the above method failed. Backup all your files, format your machine and install the SQL Server Express R2 Edition.

Hope it helps. If there are any other method or ways to fix the Windows Management Instrumentation error , please do share it with us. Thanks