Whats up guys, I'm new to this forum and would LOVE to have a career in computer forensics.
Right now, I go to NYIT, majoring in InfoTech with a concentration in Computer Security. When I graduate, I would like to have a career in Computer Forensics. I was thinking, that out of college, that I should go to John Jay for my masters in Forensic Computing.
Does any one have any other suggestion that could help me attain my dream job?
ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Hi Shawn,
I am not currently in the DFIR industry but I am currently trying to get in. So take all of this with a grain of salt 😉
I don't know about the US market but in general, I think it's easier to land a Digital Forensics job if you already know somebody in the industry.
I have found that blogging about my research/self-learning has resulted in a quite a few helpful contacts coming forward / responding to my enquiries. There's quite a few people in the DFIR community who are willing to help out but I think you first have to show that you're already making an effort/have a basic understanding.
Some suggested reading (in case you haven't heard of these)
Harlan Carvey's "Windows Forensic Analysis" series of books (you can pay me later Harlan!)
Cory Altheide/Harlan Carvey's "Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools"
Brian Carrier's "File System Forensic Analysis"
Also, play around with SANS SIFT Workstation. It has heaps of open source tools already installed and it's free (unlike Encase/FTK). I write about SIFT quite a lot in my blog and I think it has quite a large user base.
So start learning about topics that interest you and blog away. It doesn't matter if no one reads at first, the point is to build up your skills (in both forensics and written communication). As you develop your skills, you are bound to solve a problem that others will find helpful.
Eventually you can get a following of sorts and that makes it easier to reach out for advice/employment.
I think knowing how to program is another skill well worth developing - you can't rely on someone else to solve every possible forensic problem out there. And you can also save yourself time by writing some simple batch scripts (eg in Perl or Python).
It probably depends on the employer but I think having existing skills/experience (especially in commonly used tools eg RegRipper) will outweigh a Postgrad qualification (for entry level anyway). Being able to think/solve problems independently is what all those Uni degrees are supposed to be for anyway. You can use your blog as evidence as to how you think/solve problems.
Hope this helps,
Cheeky4n6Monkey (http//cheeky4n6monkey.blogspot.com/)
Digital forensics is a massively saturated field, I'd be very cautious about planning a future in it unless you are absolutely sure that you want to do it. It can also be quite dull with a lot of donkey work.
My advice to you would be to graduate and get a job in the infosec field, and then do some DF courses for incident response, RAM analysis, post exploitation stuff. From there you can likely get a job within DF. I dont have a degree in forensics and to be honest I dont think that one is neccessary to be a good examiner.
John Jay College is the only school in Manhattan that teaches DFIR that I know of. I've gone to forensic meet-ups there in the past. Go to some of their meetings and events. That will give you some of the best insight and will offer the chance to meet like-minded people getting into the field or those with years of experience.
I never studied forensics in school, but I have a strong IT background and it helped me a lot with making that transition years ago before going into this field.