Summary

This book is an introduction to the key concepts and current technologies involved in Big Data forensics. Big Data is a paradigm shift in how data is stored and managed, and the same is true for forensic investigations of Big Data. A foundational understanding of computer forensics is important to understand the process and methods used in investigating digital information. Designed as a how-to guide, this book provides practical guidance on how to conduct investigations utilizing current technology and tools. Rather than rely on general principles or proprietary software, this books presents practical solutions utilizing freely-available software where possible. Several commercial software packages are also discussed to provide guidance and other ideas on how to tackle Big Data forensics investigations.

The field of forensics is large and continues to evolve. The field is new, and the technologies continue to change and develop. The constant growth in Big Data technologies leads to change in the tools and technologies for forensic investigations. Most of the tools presented in this book were developed in the past five years. Regardless of the tools used, this book is designed to provide readers with practical guidance on how to conduct investigations and select the appropriate tools.

This book focuses on performing forensics on Hadoop systems and Hadoop-based data. Hadoop is a framework for Big Data, and many software packages are built on top of Hadoop. This book covers the Hadoop filesystem and several of the key software packages that are built on top of Hadoop, such as Hive and HBase. A freely available Linux-based Hadoop virtual machine, LightHadoop, is used in this book to present examples of collecting and analyzing Hadoop data that can be followed by the reader.

Each of the stages of the forensic process is discussed in detail using practical Hadoop examples. Chapter 2, Understanding Hadoop Internals and Architecture details the Hadoop architecture and installing LightHadoop as a test environment. The remaining chapters cover each of the phases of the forensic process and the most common Hadoop packages that a forensic investigator will encounter.