Hey guys,
I am Rakesh Vishwanath. I am from Chennai, India. I completed my UG in Information Technology in Chennai in 2009 and during the same year went to the UK to do my Masters of Sciences in Computer Forensics at University Of Westminster. I finished the degree successfully in November 2010 (same time last year) and tried applying for a CF job in a few companies over there. Futile in my search, I returned back to india a month later and started looking for jobs here. I now work for Mcafee as a Malware Analyst and my job is analysing samples ( files..we call them samples here ) that contain viruses, worms and trojans.
I would like to ask you guys this. Have I treaded a completely different path that has smashed all my dreams of working in a forensic team completely or am I just getting started and this is actually a platform I can use to eventually do what I love doing some day, Digital Forensics.
PS I am also a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).
Thanks
Rakesh
You'll find that a lot of Forensics graduates are not finding forensics jobs these days. The supply is overwhelming the demand.
In order to get into forensics people are taking alternative career paths and then eventually circling around back to doing forensics.
What I can say, however, is that any experience you get in malware analysis will benefit you greatly when the time comes to find a job in forensics. You have not made a bad decision at all in my opinion.
Your first job has no bearing on your last. Once you start down a career path, that doesn't relegate you to walk it for the rest of your career.
Besides, malware analysis is as much digital forensics as anything else. What you are doing now is as applicable to what you imagine digital forensics to be. Especially in Law enforcement, when you have CP filled computers, and you need to refute that malware caused their creation. I eagerly await the chance for me to study malware analysis for that very reason. I would imagine that if you applied for a LE position, your experience in Malware (combined with your degree) would make for a powerful application.
I would think of adding certifications, if you haven't already. In my mind, those are more telling than a degree, because it's proof of a certain level of mastery. A level more commonly known than some random college (generally speaking)
I agree with Lee. Experience in Malware analysis is sufficiently tangental to CF that it would enhance your value as a candidate. CF is a hard field to break into, but I think you're on the right track.
I agree with the others here too Rakesh, you'll be fine. If you really want it bad enough then it will happen. Use your time McAfee wisely and, who knows, if you do well there then you may be able to move into forensics within the company, or its sister companies. It's a case maybe of doing your own research, telling everyone about it and making yourself heard within your organisation… obviously in your spare time though.
Malware is more IR than CF
Look down that road.
As people are not distinguishing it as much as I think it should be, they really are 2 very separate fields.