Digital Forensics Analyst Job? | Salary, Certifications, Skills & Tools, Bootcamp, Education, etc.

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Timestamps:
My Background/Intro (0:00)
What is Digital Forensics? (0:33)
The day to day job/role (3:03)
Skills, Tools, Experience Needed (4:17)
Digital Forensics Certifications (8:42)
Salary for Digital Forensics Analysts (11:07)

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[WithSandra]

What cyber security topics or hacks do you want to hear more about? :D

[jamarcigar]

I would tell anyone who wants to go into this field to get the basics down as she stated. I would tell you to get comptia a + first and it will give you at least a basis and something to put on your resume. Try to get in help desk or entry level job first then start stacking your certs then & work your way into the role you want. Most positions will pay for your certs as well.

[johnczech]

Sandra your ability to present complex subjects and break them down is really impressive! One day your going to be a great teacher. I hope you feel better. Sorry to hear you were sick.

[trickwheel]

I have a Bachelors in computer forensics/ digital investigations. Hardest thing to overcome is the hands on experience without a background in IT.

[blueicer]

This is great advice, even if I don't wish to be a digital forensics analyst. Courses are great and getting your resume out there is a good call because many companies may have hundreds of applicants but some companies may have 50 where you may be the best fit.

[cybrkllrz]

Great video Sandra! As a certified individual, I think most of the certs you listed along with the popular ones in our industry are good and all but they are almost very theroticial and lack the hands-on experience which they expect the students to do on their own, I think getting some practical trainings like the CCD from CyberDefenders and CDSA would really complement any cert and persoanally, I think these are enough on their own if you are looking for pure technical skills. but sadly HR sometimes do us bad.

[keithhansen]

Thank you I’ve been going to college for digital forensics and I’ve been scared about trying to go find a job and I’m a little less nervous now

[DeonneMorris]

This was so straightforward and easy to listen to. Thanks tonnes!

[AshleySmith-gx]

Just started school, and I am excited!

[venessariley]

Digital forensics is an excellent field, very interesting also. Ive worked with Eclipse Forensics and they are the best!

[lifegoals]

I actually like the speed; this is the only channel where I don't have to change the speed to 1.5x lol

[MNDrummer]

Okay, so there is some good info presented here, but it is not entirely accurate/complete. First off, digital forensics is a field that can encompass many sub-disciplines and every organization defines "forensics" differently. Some organizations use the word "digital forensics" when they are really describing incident response tasks (in my opinion). So, be careful about the term digital forensics and how people use it. It can mean many different things depending on whom you talk with and what organization you are dealing with.

Digital forensics is very prominent in law enforcement investigations and surprisingly enough it is becoming more relevant in civil litigation. Digital forensics also overlaps with the growing world of eDiscovery, at least when it comes to the identification and acquisition of data.

That all being said, physical devices are not going away and are still the primary evidence sources in most law enforcement investigations. Corporate investigations generally have much less physical data acquisition because they have most of their data in some digital format on their internal or cloud networks. Most corporate entities also have tools to go out and pull data from physical devices if need be.

The salary information needs clarification. First off, law enforcement generally pay very low for digital forensic analysists. It is a weird phenomenon since these people are potentially responsible for people getting prosecuted successfully, people losing their liberty, and people receiving justice. Very odd indeed and a topic to discuss at another time. That being said, right now in September 2022 forensic skills/experience in the private sector are in high demand and even entry level jobs are starting between 80K-120K in many instances. Laboratory or team managers regularly earn $130-$200K+. Yes, there are exceptions, but the salaries have been exploding because there are not a lot of people with skills and experience in digital I'm talking about the ability to acquire multiple types of data sources (to include physical), ability to use multiple forensic tools at a high-level, ability to perform forensic analysis and identify the correct artifacts that can answer the questions needed, and the ability to write coherent reports that both technical and non-technical audiences can understand. There simply are not many people that can do these things and do them at a high level. Finding people that have experience working in a laboratory environment and understanding shared resources, accreditation (for some labs), etc. is becoming more rare.

This video has some good content, but you'll need to look a little deeper if you want to understand the full scope of digital forensics and what your specific path might be.

One recommendation, which I believe Sandra pointing out something similar, is to make yourself stand out by getting experience in areas that others may not have. Learn different tools, dabble in different types of data acquisition and analysis, find a class that others are not taking, learn how to script, etc. Also, make sure you have robust and diverse general IT skills, this is a must to be good at digital forensics in any environment. Know something about various types of common software, databases, etc. and various types of hardware to include the wide-world of IoT devices. Know what an API is. Know the basic structure of SQL databases. Know how to mount various types of files in your forensic tools.

Finally, the most overlooked skills in digital forensics is your ability to scope a proper investigation and your ability to write a thorough report which is also easy to follow. If you want to stand out then get these skills. Be able to write a report that can be framed like a masterpiece of art. This is a true skill and not many have it.

Good luck and have fun exploring digital forensics!

[anthonyb]

As always, GREAT STUFF!!! Keep it up!! 😎🔥

[kuririn]

I just wish GIAC would lower their cert costs. Man, they be expensive

[hvgaming]

Deep dive on soc analyst or early jobs like tech suppor/help desk

[agreedboarart]

I think what I'm going to do is continue working towards my Bachelor's in Computer Science so that I can get the fundamentals down in a more traditional school way, unless anyone recommends any... idk bootcamps or certifications I can look into? I have some programming experience but I can't say I'm proficient in any language, just know the basics.

[JoseppMartinezpp]

Hello, I have a problem: I was storing family photos, sending them from a secondary Facebook account that I used, but at the beginning of the year, ignoring the consequences, I deleted the secondary account and the photos that I had sent to the main account disappeared as well. Do you have the ability to recover them?

[riviperera]

Thank you for this thorough as always 🔥🔥

[carlareyes]

Will Digital Forensic teach you on how to retrieve data from a damage hard drive?

[Ty-bmhg]

Hello could you post some link to the free certification courses you elude to on the video concerning forensics?