Part X: Conclusion: Past, Present, and Future

“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”

—Sherlock Holmes in The Red Circle

I would like to close by going over some of the areas that were developed in the book and encouraging others to take the information here and expand on it. My own work in software forensics began originally just as a way to make some good money while I was working on other projects. In fact, almost a decade ago I started a company, Zeidman Technologies, and developed SynthOS, which I still believe is a great new way to automatically generate or “synthesize” a real-time operating system. I put together a prototype, filed for some patents, and wrote some papers. Then I formed a corporation, hired a team of programmers, rented an office, found a marketing/sales person (actually, I went through several of them), and the work began in earnest. Whether I was ahead of my time or I was simply wrong about my invention (I still believe RTOS synthesis in particular and software synthesis in general will end up being very valuable ways to develop complex software at a high level with more reliability and fewer bugs), the company’s revenue was not enough to pay the rent. Or the salaries. So I went back to work as a technical consultant supporting IP litigation to fund the company. I was asked to compare source code from the programs of two parties in litigation. Because I was getting paid by the hour, I was tempted to take as much time as necessary. But the work was also boring, so I created a little utility program to help me out.

I shared that little utility program with other technical consultants and expert witnesses and incorporated their feedback. In a short while, I found myself being recommended for copyright infringement and trade secret cases, mostly based on this little program I had developed. Being the brilliant businessman that I am, it took me all of a year to figure out that I should shutter the business that was losing money (or at least put it on hold) and focus on the little utility program that was making money. I called the program CodeMatch and handed it to a new corporation I had formed called Software Analysis and Forensic Engineering, while expanding my consulting business, Zeidman Consulting.

New cases required new functionality, and eventually CodeMatch got combined with CodeDiff into a program called CodeSuite. These functions were later joined by BitMatch, CodeCLOC, CodeCross, and SourceDetective, all of which were functions that I incorporated into CodeSuite.

What seemed initially like a simple utility program has proven to be very valuable. An entire set of theories and equations has been developed around it. I feel that I have been able to formalize processes and procedures that previously were more art than science. I also feel that there is a long way to go. Each case that we work on at Zeidman Consulting uncovers new issues that need to be considered. As programming languages change and evolve, the methods and mathematics for examining these programs must change and evolve also. I am a strong believer in formal procedures, and those described in this book must be continually improved and tested.

I also feel that the mathematical frameworks described in this book can be applied to many things outside of software forensics, including image recognition, search engine optimization, malware detection, and cyber security. Most likely there are other applications that I do not yet see, but that you will discover and implement. As you do, please write to me and let me know how you apply the information in this book to the field of software forensics or other fields. I wish you much success.

Bob Zeidman
Zeidman Consulting
Bob@ZeidmanConsulting.com