Hi,
Like many people on here, I'm really interested in getting in to the field of CF. Although unfortunately, other than "field offices" there aren't any companies working in the private sector in the city I'm living in (and the organisations in the public sector require experience and aren't hiring at the moment.) I have a postgraduate degree, which included a number of papers in computer security/forensics.
Would it be crazy or irresponsible to try starting a company offering CF services without any practical experience elsewhere? How often would cases generally go to court, and what would happen if a client asked me to stand as an expert witness? Is the evidence likely to be questioned because I'm "inexperienced" or "too young"? (I'm in my early twenties and look it.)
Are there any other options which I'm missing that would allow me to get in to the industry without the risk and uncertainty? (Moving to another city isn't an option.)
Thanks,
pipeline
im sure there is nothing to stop you but with any self run business what makes it successful is your contacts in industry and future clients with such little experience what would hold you back would be a lack of contacts in the field and how many clients would be willing to take someone on with no experience. Also to start up a lab of your own would take a large sum of money to invest in equipment such as fireproof safes and the such and as your so young im assuming you dont have your hands on the money getting a loan approved from the bank might be hard.
my two cents anyway.
You may have to "pay your dues" as a network support specialist working for a private firm. Take it upon your self to monitor network traffic, learn the use of tools like Snort/Wireshark, NMAP, NESSUS, Backtrack, etc. These will give you experience in Network Forensics. Try the various drive imaging and analysis tools against your employer's cast-off hard drives (with permission, of course!). Learn on both PC and Mac. Familiarize yourself with the various file-systems you'll encounter. Know how a hard drive works. (Scott Moulton's YouTube vids will make you feel like an expert after you've viewed them wink )
Learn to document your work in a form that an attorney or a juror with a middle school education can understand.
Keep up with technology (this forum is a great place to start) and practice, practice, practice. Learn different specializations. How well do you know mobile forensics? Call Detail Record analysis? Find a niche.
*Become* an expert and you'll be viewed as one.
-A
If the place you live has no forensic companies could that be because it's a place with no demand for computer forensics?
First you need a demand for the services you are supplying, and second you need to be certain that you can earn a living wage off that demand, taking into account set-up and running costs.
Are there any other options which I'm missing that would allow me to get in to the industry without the risk and uncertainty
Calculating risk is part of any business plan. I recommend looking at it in more general terms of starting a business and developing a business plan upon that. Few suggestions
Software Business Plan Pro
Books
The E-Myth Revisited Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
E-Myth Mastery The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World Class Company
Beyond Entrepreneurship Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company
Built to Last Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don't
http//www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/0066620996/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
WebSites
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Would it be crazy or irresponsible to try starting a company offering CF services without any practical experience elsewhere?
Depends upon liability laws in your jurisdiction. We all start, somewhere, but, it would be useful if you could at least mentor under a more seasoned professional.
How often would cases generally go to court, and what would happen if a client asked me to stand as an expert witness?
Most of the cases that we handle never make it to trial for a number of reasons. In most cases, that is a good thing. But you also need to assume from day 0 that what you do might end up being involved in litigation and your practices should reflect that (preservation of evidence, chain of custody, etc.).
Is the evidence likely to be questioned because I'm "inexperienced" or "too young"? (I'm in my early twenties and look it.)
It is not the evidence that will be questioned. It is either admitted as evidence or it isn't. What will be questioned are your qualifications. First question Have you ever been qualified as a digital forensics expert in any jurisdtiction? Have your work ever been cited or vetted by your peers? Have you any publications in peer reviewed journals, published any books or articles, given any talks at scientific presentations? Etc. You can help deflect these with the "I have X years in practice and handled Y cases." but that assumes that X and Y are not null.
Are there any other options which I'm missing that would allow me to get in to the industry without the risk and uncertainty?
As others have noted, try to start with an organization which handles the kinds of clients that you want. I'm not saying that you can't go it alone but think of the costs and liabilities before you leap.
Thank you all for your replies.
@tomhall911 I have some savings which I can use for the initial costs, and also my bank will give me a small interest free loan for one year (which would be enough to cover the initial costs) )
@Jonathan The reason we don't have any CF companies based here is because we don't have many large companies or government departments who have their headquarters here. This is fine because I wouldn't want to be targeting anything more than medium sized businesses.
@seanmcl I think the laws here are fairly sane, in that as long as I don't do anything fraudulent or blatantly illegal, then I can't be sued. I'll talk to the people who I had advising me on this sort of thing, but I'm not living in the US and you can't just sue people here. As far as my qualifications go, I did some papers on security/forensics as part of my degree, although I didn't publish anything on CF to a peer reviewed journal.