Some questions for those in industry

Hi

Nuneaton has a forensic company based there (cant rememeber the name). If you scout about there are some which are not based within London. If i rememeber any i'l post them, but i'm sure other memebers can help you out.

Lots of Forensic Jobs in London (Sorry, not sure what you mean by South, i lived in Portsmouth for a long time, so London to me is North, though grew up in Leciester, so understand that its sometimes south).

Specialised software is used, though std software is used too, all depends on what your attempting to do.

There are BSC and MSC degrees now available in Forensic IT / Digitial Forensic, should your fancy take you along the academia route, though i dont beleive its nessesary required.

I personally dont beleive you need to be able to program, though being able to script helps sometimes.

Cant comment on Salaries, sorry.

Hope that makes sense

Tom

hi there, I'm a new member here as well but I can help you to find some answers like for example it is good you have knowledge about hardware and know the basics of software operation, but notice, amost every forensic person comes with an strong background in computer either programming, hardware or any other field related, you dont need to program much but you will need to know how to work with the softwares to recover data.
there is a lot of information but I think is disseminated, I live in US and I think you guys in London are way ahead of us in Forensics, wish you good luck and keep in touch is good to have friends in the same field.
Salaries depend on who hires you, how much experience you can bring and how well you can sell yourself. Good luck
regards

Hi,

I've only been working in the industry for a relatively short time (3 years) but I think I can give you some useful information.

Like the previous posters, I also don't think you need to program but its an advantageous skill to have. I think it gives a good perspective on how applications interact with a system, what pieces of information they use or leave behind, and a good understanding of memory management and file systems.

In my experience, most of the Forensic analysis is performed using software, which I wouldn't say is complicated, just specialised. However, to use them effectively you will need to know what you are looking for and where to look. With this in mind I think you really need to be familiar with complicated concepts such as File Systems, OS artifacts and Networking. But don't worry if you don't have this in-depth knowledge yet (I don't), it comes with experience and working with the tools and researching each job as it comes. Plus, having a good mentor I think is invaluable. Apart from data recovery, I don't do much break and fix work (unless I did the breaking ) ).

With regards to salary, I think you need to decide what industry you want to work in as it will impact what level of salary you can achieve. Generally you can work in Law Enforcement, Corporate or Consulting. In Australia, Law Enforcement generally pays the least and Consulting the most. Law Enforcement could be for the local or federal police or regulatory bodies; Consulting is generally in a large firm that has a Forensic team and these are normally found in big Accouting or Corporate Recovery firms; Corporate is normally part of a big bank or insurance company that deals with internal fraud or investigations.

I hope this helps and good luck, its a great area to work in!

I'm in the same boat, with one exception. I am a programmer and have been developing forensic software for the last year. However, I am still trying to find the best way to get into the field. I'm just not sure where to look for positions. It happens to be one of those fields that are not usually widely advertised when openings are availiable. Over here in Ohio, USA, jobs are scarce as it is. Any help would be apreciated. Thanks for starting this one, some of the info has helped me already.

No problems, I'm glad I could be of help. Thanks to all who have posted so far. )

I know there are guys on the forum who work in this specific area, so maybe if we wait they will come along and offer their help.

I know there is at least one recruitment specialist on the board, (only for uk I think), so that should help any uker's.

Thanks, tabz for posting. It's nice to get a view from another country. )

I was actually told (not sure how good the info is) not to do a specialist forensics degree as it is better to do a straight computing one. I really don't know if this is true.

Q. Do you need to be able to program/know languages to work in Forensics?

A. To be an average computer forensic analyst, no you don't need to know how to program. To excel at your job, however, it is highly, highly advantageous if you understand the fundamentals of how programs operate and how to create and modify your own scripts.

Q. Is the work more along the lines of using complicated software and not so much break and fix like other areas of IT?

A. Regarding the concept of 'break and fix' in IT, I think pretty much every area of IT, including digital forensics, is alike. No one knows everything, and the main component of knowing how to fix something is knowing what's wrong with it - in order to do that, you draw on a combination of 1) your own experience and 2) the Internet. You will be going to the Internet for help with a forensics examination as much as you would be if you were trying to get your SQL server back online or trying to figure out why your wireless network's latency spikes at odd times throughout the day, etc.

As far as complicated software goes - the nitty, gritty concepts of digital forensics are complicated - the software is not. I agree with an earlier poster who referred to them as 'specialized'.

Q. What sort of salaries are typical at entry level, a few years exp and then really experienced?

A. I can't speak to UK salaries, but salaries in the States vary quite a bit for forensics work - at the entry level, you're either working in law enforcement or for one of the big accounting firms as an image monkey making anywhere between $25k - $45k. After a few years of experience, a few certifications and maybe a degree in computers/legal studies/IT/forensics, you shouldn't accept anything below $60k-$80k (depending on where you live). If you're really skilled at this point, you can be brushing up against six figures, especially if you're working for the Gov't (US) or a large corporation. After being in the biz for a while, you can be making $120k-$150k/yr.

Beyond that, to really increase your salary, you do one of five things 1) break into management 2) write a book 3) begin touring the lecture circuit 4) teach forensic courses/bootcamps on the side or 5) open your own consulting business.

Q. Are the majority of jobs for this type of work in the South of England?

A. Absolutely no idea - but there are lots of Brits on the forums here who can certainly elaborate on this like Tom did.

Regarding the forensics degree - if you want to get a job in digital forensics, and you can enroll in a digital forensics degree program, then why wouldn't you? I guess if you were to change your mind at the last minute, the specialized degree would not help you as much as a general IT or Comp. Sci degree, but more often than not, employers look at your relavent work experience more than what your degree is in. And by getting a forensics degree, you'll still be learning quite a bit about computers in general, on the whole.

Jeff

Thanks for the write up Jeff )