Book Image

Python for Secret Agents - Volume II - Second Edition

By : Steven F. Lott
Book Image

Python for Secret Agents - Volume II - Second Edition

By: Steven F. Lott

Overview of this book

Python is easy to learn and extensible programming language that allows any manner of secret agent to work with a variety of data. Agents from beginners to seasoned veterans will benefit from Python's simplicity and sophistication. The standard library provides numerous packages that move beyond simple beginner missions. The Python ecosystem of related packages and libraries supports deep information processing. This book will guide you through the process of upgrading your Python-based toolset for intelligence gathering, analysis, and communication. You'll explore the ways Python is used to analyze web logs to discover the trails of activities that can be found in web and database servers. We'll also look at how we can use Python to discover details of the social network by looking at the data available from social networking websites. Finally, you'll see how to extract history from PDF files, which opens up new sources of data, and you’ll learn about the ways you can gather data using an Arduino-based sensor device.
Table of Contents (7 chapters)
6
Index

Background briefing–Portable Document Format

The PDF file format dates from 1991. Here's a quote from Adobe's website about the format: it can capture documents from any application, send electronic versions of these documents anywhere, and view and print these documents on any machines. The emphasis is clearly on view and print. What about analysis?

There's an ISO standard that applies to PDF documents, assuring us that no single vendor has a lock on the technology. The standard has a focus on specific technical design, user interface or implementation or operational details of rendering. The presence of a standard doesn't make the document file any more readable or useful as a long-term information archive.

What's the big problem?

The Wikipedia page summarizes three technologies that are part of a PDF document:

  • A subset of the PostScript page description programming language, for generating the page layout and graphics
  • Font management within the document
  • A document...