All Things to Know Before You Choose a career in Digital Forensic Investigation

What is Digital Forensics?

Digital Forensics relates to the powerful integration of computer science and law assisting in cybercrime investigation. Holding a critical place in the field of cybersecurity, it spans across various stages starting with evidence collection, exhibiting acquisition, investigation, analysis to data recovery, interpretation, and presentation in the court of law. Forensic technology experts deploy various forensic tools to gather potential pieces of evidence to frame a strong case against cyber criminals and support in battling cyber attacks.

Current State of Digital Forensics Market

According to the latest market research, the global digital forensics market that valued 2.87 billion dollars in 2016, is predicted to grow at a rising CAGR of 9.7% from 2017 and 2025, giving vent to a soaring demand for forensic investigators and expert professionals. The digital forensic skills are most demanded by financial sector facing frequent contentious, non-contentious, and fraudulent attacks, that act as key drivers for digital forensics market.

Digital forensics market can be classified as:

• Computer forensics
• Network forensics
• Cloud forensics
• Mobile device forensics
• Database forensics

Digital forensics applies to the following industries

• Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI)
• Defense and Aerospace
• Information Technology
• Law Enforcement
• Healthcare
• Education
• Transportation and Logistics

Computer Forensic: Unlocking Legal Careers

Computer forensic specialists are highly preferred for critical positions in the public and private sectors. Groundbreaking advances in Forensic Investigation field assists investigators to stay current and keep pace with the hacker’s mind frequency to retrieve electronic footprints for digital investigations. The types of cases where forensic investigators and consultant expertise resorts include:

• Computer break-ins
• Web page hacking
• Mail fraud
• Data theft
• Industrial espionage

As such cases have become frequent around the world, the demand for digital forensic investigation experts is on the highest. Possessing the apt knowledge of forensic investigation tools, techniques, best practices combined with hacking and penetration testing skills, prove to be the best combination to acquire promising career roles of:

• Computer Forensics Analyst
• Information Security Analyst
• Network Security Specialist
• Security Administrator
• IT Security Consultant
• Ethical Hacker
• Penetration Tester
• IT Auditor

Key Skills to Acquire

After acquiring key positions in forensic investigation domain, you need to exhibit the critical skills that include:

• Understanding on cybercrime investigation process
• Cybercrime categories, digital evidence types, rules of evidence, and best practices in digital evidence examination
• Conducting preliminary investigation interviews, securing & evaluating computer crime scenes
• Using forensic investigator tools, collecting & transporting electronic evidence, and cybercrime scene preservation
• Recovering deleted files and partitions in diverse computing environments, including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS
• Password cracking techniques, knowledge of password attacks, the latest tools and technologies to decipher password breaches
• Log analysis methods, time clock synchronization, and event correlation
• Identifying, analyzing and defending the network, email, mobile, wireless and web attacks
• Providing witness testimony in cybercrime trials and legal proceedings, and much more…

How to Shape a successful career in Computer Forensics

The prominent and sure shot way of achieving the key positions in forensic investigation domain requires you to acquire competent skills in digital forensic techniques and tools essential to trace the cybercriminal footprints. EC-Council’s CHFI (Computer Hacking Forensic Investigation) certification is designed to help you succeed in your forensic investigation career goals. The CHFI certification is a vendor-neutral program that helps you cater to different computing environments, uncover complex digital evidences and analyze them to catch hold of cybercriminals and prosecute them by law. The average annual pay for a CHFI Across the U.S. is $50,486 a year and worldwide it ranges from $17,000 to $116,000, based on skills and experience.

For CHIF training and certification courses, you must enroll with authorized training partners of EC-Council, having a proven record of delivering extensive hands-on training experience. The CHFI training and certification instructor-led classes, available in blended training modes, can be opted based on your work schedules, tailored to suit your learning needs.