All you need to know about the history, building, customization, and use of the windows Forensic Environment (WinFE). WinFE is a forensically sound version of winpe, a bootable operating system used by virtually any law enforcement agency that conducts forensic examinations.Learn how you can build a WinFE and the innovative uses for your digital forensics casework.From its inception by Troy Larson in 2008, through the development of WinFE through more advanced (and simpler) builds, this guide goes through every phase of WinFE's life cycle to the present.
I've had a fantastic career in law enforcement, starting in a municipal police agency (Renton WA PD) where I took on various roles. I was selected for detectives, later assigned to a state (VNET) task force, and then recruited to a federal (DHS) task force. Along the way, I was appointed as a bicycle patrol officer, SWAT officer, use-of-force instructor, undercover officer, and computer forensics examiner.
My cases spanned coast-to-coast in the USA. I even ventured outside the USA, working undercover and infiltrating international organized crime rings for various alphabet agencies in foreign countries. I’ve bought, sold, and seized tons of drugs, along with seizing hundreds of illegal firearms. I smuggled bulk currency across borders and assumed undercover roles as a drug trafficker, drug manufacturer, arms trafficker, human trafficker, and hit man. But rescuing children from trafficking after witnessing their tragedies made me cry. That changed me more than anything else I’ve ever done.
I’ve also been an adjunct instructor at the University of Washington’s Digital Forensics Program, qualified in courts as an expert witness, appointed as a Special Master, and consulted on digital forensic at every court level. I speak at lots of conferences, write blogs on digital forensics (www.brettshavers.com and www.dfir.training), am an honorary life member and former President of the Computer Technology Investigators Network (https://ctin.org/), and am a founding member of DFIR Review (https://dfrws.org/dfir-review/). I have worked on all kinds of criminal and civil cases, from harassment to national security matters. Of all my training and experiences, my most effective “teachers” have been those I wined and dined with while undercover.
And long, long ago, I served as an active-duty Corporal of Marines (I was in 2/3, for you Devil Dogs out there wondering). Now, I am but a humble member of the Marine Corps League and the Marine Corps Cyber Auxiliary. You can find me rambling away at www.brettshavers.com.