RE: Is a career change to Computer Forensics fantasy or can it be reality?

["Paula McPherson" <qxlr () twmi rr com>]

To testify as an expert you must be "certified" to do so by the Court.
Either through a voir dire of your Vitae (examination and cross-examination
of one's professional expertise including review of all published works) or
stipulation of parties, one way or the other the dude taking the stand has
to be a hardware and software God. 

Though I came from a legal background, I did not come to system security
late; I had to wait for them to upgrade the abacas.

-----Original Message-----
From: listbounce () securityfocus com [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On
Behalf Of David Gillett
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 7:41 PM
To: reapersoft () gmail com; security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: RE: Is a career change to Computer Forensics fantasy or can it be
reality?

> 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.

  There are at least two common definitions of "Computer Forensics",
which *do* overlap.  Undoubtedly, some of the sources you've seen
are using one and some another.

1.  Investigation of Computer Security Incidents
  A lot of this is recognizing what's abnormal and figuring out how
it came about.  Obviously, someone without an IT background is going
to be ill-equipped for this.

2.  Recovering Evidence from Computer Systems
  This is all about being able to testify, as necessary, at termination
hearings, lawsuits, and even criminal trials, as to things like
standard procedures, sanitary methods, chain of custody, and the like.
Detailed IT knowledge is helpful, but is more essential to tool authors
than to tool users.  Although the evidence is stored in a digital 
information system, the acts of which it provides evidence need not
involve any violation of computer security, but are more often evidence
of fraud, infidelity, or other sorts of non-computer malfeasance.

  Certifications come in both flavors, too.  My impression is that the
particular certs you've listed are attempting to certify expertise under
the first definition; under the second, courts have decided to accept
evidence retrieved by a few specific tools *when used by a vendor-
certified operator*, and so each tool has its vendor certification
program.
  (Jobs in the second category have so far mostly been with law enforcement
and prosecutorial agencies, although I expect that at some point there will 
begin to be a market for these skills on the defendant side as well.)

  To those who use the second definition, activities under the first
definition are a subset of "Incident Response", and you may find it
easier to get into that general field and then specialize in the particular
aspect that interests you, than to try to go directly into specialization.

David Gillett

 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: listbounce () securityfocus com 
> [mailto:listbounce () securityfocus com] On Behalf Of 
> reapersoft () gmail com
> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 5:04 AM
> To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: Is a career change to Computer Forensics fantasy or 
> can it be reality?
>
> 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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