Rohit Tamma is the author of Practical Mobile Forensics and Learning Android Forensics books, we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey…
Rohit: Back in 2012, My friend Satish and I started researching security issues related to mobile phones – how data can be extracted remotely, how deleted data can be recovered etc. Mobile forensics was very niche at that point of time & we could hardly find any relevant and useful resources over the internet. So we started to post articles in our blog and we received good responses. And one fine day, looking at our blog, Packt team approached us to ask if we would be interested in writing a book that would help readers to follow step by step forensic techniques. We loved the idea and signed up for it!
Q: How long did it take you to write the book?
Rohit: 9 months
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
Rohit: We have been already engaged actively in the research part even before we started the book. So that was definitely an advantage we had. But the book outline gave it a definite direction & structure. We had to research several new techniques related to Android & iOS forensics.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
Rohit: Oh yes, there were challenges. For example, as I had my regular office work along with writing the book, balancing both was a challenge especially for the first edition. Most of the research and writing was accomplished during the weekends. And thankfully Packt team was very supportive in that journey and with time, we were able to track the progress better and give heads-up in case of any misses. Another challenge we faced is with respect to keeping up with the changes happening in the mobile space. We had to make sure that the content we captured 6 months back was not outdated. Testing the techniques for 4 different platforms – Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows as also another challenge we faced.
Q: What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?
Rohit: Tech is very broad. Pick an area of your interest and once you’re comfortable in that space, think of some of unsolved problem areas. Find out if that is actually a problem area and if people would be interested in a solution. If yes, go chase it.
Q. How do you keep up-to-date on your tech?
Rohit: I use LinkedIn & Twitter primarily for updates.
Q. How would you describe you author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
Rohit: I have worked with multiple folks from Packt and I can tell you, they’re one of the best publishing companies to work with.
You can find Rohit’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here
