Hello,
I am a software engineer working in the VoIP space. I am looking to change my
career path and get into Computer Forensics.
Without any experience its going to be a tough road but I believe my
troubleshooting skills and software experience can help. My troubleshooting
ability can be valuable on the investigation side of things, I generally will
"chew" on a problem until its solved or at least until I have another way to
debug it and gather more information. My programming skills can come in handy
for gathering information during an investigation when its a network intrusion
or for malware analysis, at least this is my reasoning.
Some things I am doing now is reading books (File System Forensic Analysis,
Real Digital Forensic etc...) and listening to relevant podcasts but that only
takes one so far. My other thought is to get one of the many certifications
out there so that when I attempt to gain employment I am at least showing some
initiative and not just a passing interest in the field. Spending some of my
own money shows a committment to my goal.
There has always been a conflict in my mind that one who persues Forensics
needs to first be a Security/IT type, I have seen where this looks to be true
and where it does not, perhaps someone can comment on that.
I am looking for opinions on what certifications I might spend my money on.
Should I go with a security cert, a pure forensics cert, some combination of
both or neither.
Some of the Forensic specific certs I have been evaluating are the SANS GCFA
and ISFCE CCE.
I have posted this to the SecurityFocus Forensics list but it was rejected
because it was off topic. I did however get some good feedback from the lists'
moderator, thanks for that!
I wish to get some more feedback from others so hopefully the Basics list is
the place to post.
In a nutshell:
Can one get into the field of Computer Forensics thru self study and getting a
certification or is it such a closed field that I should look elsewhere for a
career change and not waste my time/money?
Is the field primarily based on experience and not certs?
Any and all opinions are welcome.
Thanks in advance,
MH
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