Education Path for Dforensics in Australia

What city/state are you in?

Edith Cowan University in Perth or Macquarie uni in Sydney offer forensic degrees.
I know Deakin has a "subject" on forensics, you can do a IT Security degree by correspondence through them.

Does Open Uni have any subjects on File Systems/Operating Systems/Computer architecture?

You can also do the EnCase courses through Dimension Data

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the fast reply's.

Patrick4n6, i am in Central Coast NSW do you think this will make a difference, are there better courses in different states?

richardc4n6, i don't think they have specific those specific subjects, from what i have looked at so far they have more general IT degrees like, BA IT Computing Studies with a subject in Operating Systems Principles.

Other than that i cannot see more detailed subjects on File Systems/OS's or Architecture.

I might have a look at the Security Degree through Edith, I'm assuming it will be a post grad degree so i may just have to do a BA first to get into it.

Thanks again all

dforensicnoob, due to the lack of digital forensics courses in Australia I think a Bachelors in IT will give you most of the initial grounding that you need. Most forensic employers in Aus understand that there aren't many formal academic qualifications available in the field and will therefore provide you with either on-the-job training or industry training once you join on the ground level.

Before I started working in forensics I just had a Bachelor's degree in IT but was working on my Masters at the time. I did my Masters at QUT (Brisbane) and they have a subject on Computer Forensics but I believe it is only offered at the postgrad level.

You will be surprised how much knowledge the generic IT degree will give you to help you on your way. It is unavoidable though as almost all jobs will require you to have that piece of paper, i.e. a 'computing related degree'.

richarchc4n6 mentions doing EnCase courses through Dimension Data. You could go down the industry software training route but as a private individual it will ultimately end up costing you A LOT of money. Ideally your future employer will pay for you to go on those courses. EnCase, AccessData, X-ways etc.

I asked your location to figure out which agencies you should be looking at. Pick up the phone and call NSW police and ask for State Electronic Evidence Branch. Then talk to their computer forensics guys and ask them what qualifications are desirable to get a job there.

As Kat said, a general IT degree and some practical experience in IT is still generally your best bet. You're going to want to learn things like how to pull apart a computer and how operating systems work, so if you don't have years of experience, something like A+ cert will be good to get you up to speed. My IT degree didn't really touch practical hardware at all but I made up for it with years in tech support and programming as relevant practical experience.

Then if you get your foot in the door with SEEB or some other govt agency, they will train you up the rest of the way. Be aware however that you're likely going to have to move from the central coast to Sydney, Canberra or some other capital city to get work in this field so you should consider willingness to relocate before you spend a lot of time/money on CF.

Thank you all very much for the information provided, i will be giving it all some looking into.

Again i thank you all for the fast and informative reply's.