Digital forensics deals with the acquisition, preservation, examination, analysis and presentation of electronic evidence. Networked computing, wireless communications and portable electronic devices have expanded the role of digital forensics beyond traditional computer crime investigations. Practically every crime now involves some aspect of digital evidence; digital forensics provides the techniques and tools to articulate this evidence. Digital forensics also has myriad intelligence applications. Furthermore, it has a vital role in information assurance – investigations of security breaches yield valuable information that can be used to design more secure systems.

Advances in Digital Forensics describes original research results and innovative applications in the emerging discipline of digital forensics. In addition, it highlights some of the major technical and legal issues related to digital evidence and electronic crime investigations. The areas of coverage include:

• Themes and Issues in Digital Forensics

• Investigative Techniques

• Network Forensics

• Portable Electronic Device Forensics

• Linux and File System Forensics

• Applications and Techniques

This book is the first volume of a new series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.9 on Digital Forensics, an international community of scientists, engineers and practitioners dedicated to advancing the state of the art of research and practice in digital forensics. The book contains a selection of twenty-five edited papers from the First Annual IFIP WG 11.9 Conference on Digital Forensics, held at the National Center for Forensic Science, Orlando, Florida, USA in February 2005.

Advances in Digital Forensics is an important resource for researchers, faculty members and graduate students, as well as for practitioners and individuals engaged in research and development efforts for the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

Mark Pollitt is President of Digital Evidence Professional Services, Inc., Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. Mr. Pollitt, who is retired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), served as the Chief of the FBI's Computer Analysis Response Team, and Director of the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory National Program.

Sujeet Shenoi is the F.P. Walter Professor of Computer Science and a principal with the Center for Information Security at the University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.

For more information about the 300 other books in the IFIP series, please visit www.springeronline.com.

For more information about IFIP, please visit www.ifip.org.