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Writer's pictureThe Oldcommguy

Where should I start?


Where should I start

Python is an interpreted, high-level, general-purpose programming language. Created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, Python has a design philosophy that emphasizes code readability, notably using significant white space. It provides constructs that enable clear programming on both small and large scales. In July 2018, Van Rossum stepped down as the leader in the language community.

Python features a dynamic type system and automatic memory management. It supports multiple programming paradigms, including object-oriented, imperative, functional and procedural, and has a large and comprehensive standard library.

Python interpreters are available for many operating systems. CPython, the reference implementation of Python, is open source software and has a community-based development model, as do nearly all of Python's other implementations. Python and CPython are managed by the non-profit Python Software Foundation.

 

The goal today is to introduce you to something that adds to your toolbox. We will be pointing you in a direction to get started if you find the information useful. As usual our background is in the arena of computer forensics which lays the foundation for what and why we are talking about this today. We will do follow up articles and or videos to go deeper later regarding Python forensics. Thank you for stopping by today and checking us out.

Python is a very powerful programming language and many before us have created a lot of useful tools and modules for Python forensics. Needless to say, most of the tools and or modules regarding computer forensics, were developed for version Python 2.7x. We have dropped a few links to some useful sites here and hope you check them out.

Learning Python is not that hard, if you have the will and desire to learn. We have found many books on the programming language but even better for some, are some great videos on YouTube. If you want to get started in Python we have found Corey Schafer on YouTube and he has a great series on Python from Start to Finish. Click on his name here and you will be taken to his channel on this subject.

We have yet to find one thing we cannot accomplish with Python from reading hard drive serial numbers to reading the master boot record (MBR). The funny thing is Python will run on just about everything to include cell phones. Python code can be used from data recovery to network monitoring. If you were to look under the hood of many computer forensic program tools out on the market today, we are willing to bet you will find Python there somewhere. Do not get us wrong, Python is useful in so much more than just forensics and is even used in AI. Yes, artificial intelligence can be programmed with Python and there are modules out there for just that.

We wanted to take this time to introduce you to a great program for achieving many goals in the computer realm. There are many editors out there for creating your code and the one we use is Sublime Text 3. It is free for use but does have a nag screen that pops up once in a blue moon but no bother. It is also very affordable to purchase if you want the screen not to pop up. Not a bad investment, we would say. Corey Schafer does a great video on setting up sublime as well.

Thanks again for stopping by and checking this out. We hope that we have given you some food for thought and will be doing a series on Python forensics in the near future. Until then, have a great day learning.

 
Casey Mullis

Author - Emory Mullis has been in Law Enforcement for roughly 20 plus years including military and civilian law enforcement. He started learning about computers back when Gateway 266 MHz was the top of the line and cost about $2000.00. Right out the box, I was compelled to take my new found 266 apart. Why I have no idea other than pure curiosity. Once I had the computer out the box and on the floor in pieces, my wife walked in. Trust me people; this was not a good thing! Either way I got a good understanding at this point on how a computer is put together and / or the components inside. This was my starting point with computers and I still hear my wife in the back ground “It better work when you put it back together!” That was my humble beginnings as a Cyber Investigator. Now with many Cyber cases under my belt, I have learned that you must question, challenge and test almost daily to keep up with all the new tools, software, computers and cell phone formats to be able to forensically acquire evidence and it is a real challenge. I enjoy the challenge and look forward to learning more every day!

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