Python for secret agents. Volume II : gather, analyze, and decode data to reveal hidden facts using Python, the perfect tool for all aspiring secret agents / Steven F. Lott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lott, Steven F., author.

Series:

Community experience distilled.

Community experience distilled

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer security.

Python (Computer program language).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (180 p.)

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

Birmingham : Packt Publishing, 2015.

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Biography/History:

Lott Steven F. : Steven Lott has been programming since computers were large, expensive, and rare. Working for decades in high tech has given him exposure to a lot of ideas and techniques, some bad, but most are helpful to others. Since the 1990s, Steven has been engaged with Python, crafting an array of indispensable tools and applications. His profound expertise has led him to contribute significantly to Packt Publishing, penning notable titles like "Mastering Object-Oriented, " "The Modern Python Cookbook, " and "Functional Python Programming. " A self-proclaimed technomad, Steven's unconventional lifestyle sees him residing on a boat, often anchored along the vibrant east coast of the US. He tries to live by the words Don't come home until you have a story.

Summary:

Gather, analyze, and decode data to reveal hidden facts using Python, the perfect tool for all aspiring secret agents About This Book Discover the essential features of Python programming: statements, variables, expressions, and many of the built-in data types Use Python's standard library to do more sophisticated data gathering and analysis Written by a Python programming expert, with over 35 years' experience as a consultant, teacher, author and software developer Who This Book Is For This book is for Secret Agents who have some exposure to Python. Our focus is on the Field Agents who are ready to do more sophisticated and complex programming in Python. We'll stick to simple statistics for the most part. A steady hand with a soldering iron is not required, but a skilled field agent should be able to assemble a working Arduino circuit to gather their own sensor data. What You Will Learn Upgrade Python to the latest version and discover its latest and greatest tools Use Python libraries to extract data from log files that are designed more for people to read than for automated analysis Summarize log files and extract meaningful information Gather data from social networking sites and leverage your experience of analyzing log files to summarize the data you find Extract text and images from social networking sites Parse the complex and confusing data structures in a PDF file to extract meaningful text that we can analyze Connect small, intelligent devices to our computer to use them as remote sensors Use Python to analyze measurements from sensors to calibrate them and use sensors efficiently In Detail 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, ...

Contents:

Cover ; Copyright; Credits; About the Author; About the Reviewer; www.PacktPub.com; Table of Contents; Preface; Chapter 1: New Missions - New Tools ; Background briefing on tools; Doing a Python upgrade; Preliminary mission to upgrade pip; Background briefing: review of the Python language; Using variables to save results; Using the sequence collections: strings; Using other common sequences: tuples and lists; Using the dictionary mapping; Comparing data and using the logic operators; Using some simple statements; Using compound statements for conditions: if

Using compound statements for repetition: for and whileDefining functions; Creating script files; Mission One - upgrade Beautiful Soup; Getting an HTML page; Navigating the HTML structure; Doing other upgrades; Mission to expand our toolkit; Scraping data from PDF files; Sidebar on the ply package; Building our own gadgets; Getting the Arduino IDE; Getting a Python serial interface; Summary; Chapter 2: Tracks, Trails, and Logs ; Background briefing - web servers and logs; Understanding the variety of formats; Getting a web server log; Writing a regular expression for parsing

Introducing some regular expression rules and patternsFinding a pattern in a file; Using regular expression suffix operators; Capturing characters by name; Looking at the CLF; Reading and understanding the raw data; Reading a gzip compressed file; Reading remote files; Studying a log in more detail; What are they downloading?; Trails of activity; Who is this person?; Using Python to run other programs; Processing whois queries; Breaking a request into stanzas and lines; Alternate stanza-finding algorithm; Making bulk requests; Getting logs from a server with ftplib

Building a more complete solutionSummary; Chapter 3: Following the Social Network ; Background briefing - images and social media; Accessing web services with urllib or http.client; Who's doing the talking?; Starting with someone we know; Finding our followers; What do they seem to be talking about?; What are they posting?; Deep Under Cover - NLTK and language analysis; Summary; Chapter 4: Dredging up History ; Background briefing-Portable Document Format; Extracting PDF content; Using generator expressions; Writing generator functions; Filtering bad data; Writing a context manager

Writing a PDF parser resource managerExtending the resource manager; Getting text data from a document; Displaying blocks of text; Understanding tables and complex layouts; Writing a content filter; Filtering the page iterator; Exposing the grid; Making some text block recognition tweaks; Emitting CSV output; Summary; Chapter 5: Data Collection Gadgets ; Background briefing: Arduino basics; Organizing a shopping list; Getting it right the first time; Starting with the digital output pins; Designing an external LED; Assembling a working prototype; Mastering the Arduino programming language

Using the arithmetic and comparison operators

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed January 12, 2016).

ISBN:

9781785285431

1785285432

OCLC:

933389468