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Become a digital forensic scientist: how to, schools, salary

Digital forensics is a new science and its international developing process has become more and more important in recent years. Since the explosion of technology led to more and more data storage and information preservation, and now, pretty much everybody has a smartphone and/or a computer, the the number of cyber crimes has increased dramatically – but so has the possibility to incriminate someone with help from the digital data storage.

As a result, digital forensic science has become a more and more streamlined area, and the field has met multiple attempts in being standardized and internationally agreed on. Eventually this happened, and over 40 states signed the treaty during the 2000s. The technology acumen and the information level has also improved, as the general interest for the field developed.

Training programs and certifications required in digital forensics

The junior workers in the field have to complete at least a two year long degree as well as practical work experience in cyber security, in order to be eligible to perform any type of activity in the field. After these requirements have been completed, the future forensic specialist is allowed to move in what direction he wants. If the initial specialization is in law enforcement and the general background covers the legal area, the procedure that should be followed includes training in order to be eligible on an entry position in the field.

Since this is a highly skill-intensive and highly appreciate line of work, programs offer fellowships, collaborations, internships and volunteering opportunities, which will eventually count as work experience, a start of a sustainable career development. In order to further occupy a specific position in the field a master degree will be necessary, thus assuring other two years of continuous knowledge improvement, as the level of know-how is highly important in assuring the necessary expertise to perform certain activities as a professional, such as the analysis process during a digital investigation.

Another requirement besides great memory, analytical and adaptability is proficient legal framework background in order to successfully perform these kinds of services to qualify a suspect as being guilty or innocent in court. Basically, you need to know what you can and can’t do, and what does and does not qualify as a crime.

While the agreement regulating this work force sector in the United States of America is the , the professionalism leverage is constantly monitored by the , organization offering all kinds of volunteering and internship opportunities for the apprentices in the field, as well as career enhancing tools such as free access to an important national digital library. The privilege to practice in the scientific area before having finished obtaining all the necessary degrees is another very important decision that a student should make, as it is complementary to the theoretical knowledge. A number of hours (differing from a state to another) of practical experience is needed for any kind of employment, even on an entry position. Gathering both the knowledge and the practical skills necessary to make a great forensic practitioner is essential to be done at the same time in order to corroborate the information from two distinct sides.

Jobs and hiring opportunities in digital forensics

The number of professionals hired in the digital forensic fied during the 5 years is 154 per cent higher than it was in 2007, not only is the field growing to keep up with technology, but that more and more law enforcement agencies are looking for experts to perform either research or analysis in the field. These agencies have to constantly adapt and improve their digital forensic team to cope the continuously increasing number of cases in need of digital forensic services. Identification, recovery, analysis and location of digital forensic evidence requires a high level of predispositions as well as very specific knowledge for a technical proficiency level of such a job description to be fulfilled.

But it is not just the law enforcement agencies which can give you a job, but some national, regional and local institutions as well, such as the Department of Security in every state of the U.S.

In order to have the minimum guarantee of success in the field it’s recommended that the to graduate an accredited college, as well as a university, higher education being necessary, but not sufficient for a sustainable career development. It’s the hands-on training and the practical knowledge that make you a good digital forensics.

One of the basic requirements of the interns, students as well as practitioners altogether is to maintain the legal and technical, digital knowledge on a proficient, actual, current level – as technology develops, you have to develop too. Surely, networking as student during the practice years before the actual scientific responsibilities may help enrich the general background in both legal and technological fields, thus helping to a more rapid career development. It takes commitment to constantly stay informed in such an activity field, reason for which an intern who discovers that either digital information or law are not his passion, the most adequate thing to be done is a professional reorientation.

Digital forensics salary

The advice of the , one of the leading recruiting companies, for anyone who wishes to work in the field is to start the internship and volunteering in in order to gain valuable experience that will further help in building a solid career. Also, applying on an entry position is something that the specialists in the field would recommend not to be done if there’s any volunteering experience available to be taken into consideration following the hiring criteria, since the entry level employees are poorly paid compared to the number of hours they have to work per day, the social sacrifices they have to make (sometimes analyzing a case may get to giving up social life as a sacrifice, in return for work dedication) and the quantity of tasks they have to fulfill.

On the other hand, the average salary for a job in digital forensics in the United States of America is $89, 000 a year, which makes the entire experience worth it. Of course, when you enter the line it will be somewhat lower, but it can grow very, very much – and unlike other lines of work, if you’re really good, promotion is much easier.

Digital Forensic Science: about, procedure, how to

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Digital forensic science is also known as digital forensics and encompasses the all the investigations and research used in solving computer crime. The material used is, without exception, in digital format, and unlike computer forensics, it exclusively refers to storing devices and the afferent data – not to everything that’s computer or smartphone/tablet-related.

This is a pretty delicate subject, as the line is not clearly drawn in all cases related to digital forensics. Depending on the national laws, this data is placed in a legal hold by the attorneys as being potentially relevant. This is the most common usage of the digital forensics in court, when a hypothesis is researched in order to be supported or refuted. The courts can be both criminal and civil, as well as in the private sector, for instance when there’s an ongoing corporate internal investigation.

Digital forensics basics

This branch of forensic sciences can be used to intercept direct evidence related to many a crime, especially as it can be helpful in attributing evidence to nominal suspects in approaches like document authentication processes. Unlike other types of forensic analysis, the digital forensic investigations are more extensive concerning the investigations techniques, as well as the areas and specific procedures. The main difference in the case of digital forensics is that an entire causal chain has to be proven to be either right or wrong before going to court, in opposition with other specific forensics where providing answers to unrelated questions based on simple research is enough.

Such an example are the alibis or statements to be confirmed, that not only require specific physical digital evidence, but an entire explanation of their functionality/disfunctionality, relevance on the case and causality with the other accusing or defending elements. For example, if your alibi is that you were at home, playing computer games, then your computer can yield this information (to the skilled investigator) and your alibi can be checked out.

Digital forensics classification

According to the type of digital devices of interest, there can be multiple sub-branches of such a digital forensics investigation:

– computer forensics – whenever the type of data is stored on a personal or public computer, instead of on a separate digital device

– network forensics – sub-branch referring to the monitoring of a network in order to intercept and use legal evidence of any kind

– forensic data analysis – the investigative process per se and its results

– mobile device forensics – aimed to recover digital evidence stored on mobile devices, under forensically sound conditions. This is the newest branch, it basically didn’t exist 10-15 years ago, but nowadays most everybody uses a smartphone, and this can be extremely important.

During the 2000s there has been a broader international need for standardization in the field of digital forensic science, as a great number of guidelines have been published in order to become a standardized norm and further be internationally followed. The international treaty has been signed by no less than 43 nations, including the United States of America, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and other European countries as well.

Along with this , the problem of digital forensic training has become a small industry Forensic software developing programs have included a digital forensic certification in their training programs, where an important point was allocated to internet crime, particularly cyber warfare, as well.

Digital forensics procedure

Concerning the investigation process during a digital forensic examination, trained law enforcement personnel performs the seizure and the acquisition processes, after which the forensic duplicate of the digital data is ready to be properly examined. The evidence brought has to either support or infirm a hypothesis, while signs of tampering will be looked for.

The definition given by the in 2002 for this is ‘an in-depth systematic search of evidence related to the suspected crime’. The investigation methodologies can substantially differ from a case to another, considered reliable in the state where the examination takes place, in order to be accountable and available in court. The procedure also mentions the written expert conclusion of the evidence.

Legal Considerations for digital forensics

There are numerous controversial issues regarding the monitoring and investigations of personal data and devices in particular and for civil investigations in general, overlapping a number of individual freedoms such as the freedom of speech or possession, as well as the right of privacy. In the United States of America for instance there is the limiting the investigation capacities of the digital forensic expert, for both intercepting and accessing evidence, while in the United Kingdom the law covering the computer crime area also includes limitations in accessing unauthorized computer material.

All these laws describe the legal framework under which the investigative process has to take place. Also, once in the court of law, the digital forensic evidence falls under the rules of any other type of evidence available for the court to be taken into consideration in the decision making process.

Nonprofit Investigatative Journalism Project spots forensic errors

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‘Justice is in the interest of the stronger’

Plato, The Republic

What Rousseau said

We were taught, ever since we were small, not to harm anything or anyone no matter the circumstances, to respect every single person in the society from the janitor to the researchers who work constantly to find cure for the most merciless diseases, to discern the good from the bad, not to leave our prejudices speak for the people we should first get to know, to respect any imaginable right without question, to always leave a place a little better than we found it, to systematically invest in our social self and to mirror it back as flawless behavior. And then we grow up, we make voluntary work and learn CPR and Heimlich maneuver not for ourselves, since we would never be able to rescue our own lives, but for our fellows, and for our piece of mind that in our turn, we would be rescued by other educated people. It’s a sort of a given, this assumptive social contract we’re constantly dealing with, starting from a common-sense premisses: that everyone else is taught to do the same things as we are. And that they do. That being a law abiding citizen is only fair, the compromise our instinctive ego has to make to make sure of our security and righteousness.

Is this the world we live in?

But there was never a teacher to start a class by saying that we could be the victims of thieves and rapists, of mentally ill, unstable people who were never taught the same things as we were. There was never a class to start with massive corruption examples, a teacher to say that by doing our job immaculately we could save the lives others would condemn by doing it wrong.

Forensic Science Malpractice.

But the systematic failures in the forensic sciences have often very grave and damnatory repercussions. Either because of the precarious legal framework, the fraudulent, corrupt intentions of the accuser, most of the accused who are directly affected are never told, not even if the institutional heads holding responsible for the accusations and their legal demonstration are informed about the malpractice, reason for which, when these situations occur the convicts end spending dozens of years in jail or even being sentenced with death penalty.

Chicago Innocence Project is a nonprofit investigative journalism program aimed to identify and analyze wrongful convictions of different natures, such as erroneous interpretation of forensic evidence or faulty testimony. David Protess, president of this association, is a former director of the Innocence Project at , the place where he trained and assisted his students to find evidence that freed twelve innocent convicts, out of which five were sentenced with death. The Chicago Innocence Project has saved ten uninvolved felons so far.

The findings incriminate different glitches of the American forensic system, as one of the main identified problems is the inconclusive forensic evidence based on which the convictions were made. , initially convicted for having murdered his neighbor in 1980, had his verdict reversed in 1992 on the basis of this malpractice.

Other two innocents were convicted for having murdered a suburban couple in 1978. The main problem with the process was that crucial testimony was obtain through physical violence and coercion, as the witnesses were brutalized by the police. In 1996 the verdicts were reversed, after this group’s investigation.

Other two law abiding citizens, Aaron Patterson and Eric Caine, were accused of double murder of an old couple in 1986 and in 1989 Aaron Patterson was punished by death penalty. As the investigation later developed pointed out, the confession of Aaron Patterson was the result of police brutality. In 2003, Mr. Patterson was pardoned by the American Government, and Eric Caine was freed from prison in 2011.

Another double murder case from 1986 placed one of the convicts on death row and the other on life sentence. After having been investigated because of the discredited testimony, the case was dismissed by the prosecutors in 2004 and a retrial was ordered for the first one, while the second convict was released from prison in 2008.

Expanding the Nuclear Forensic Framework

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Conceiving a regulatory system consisting in a more operative, researched and rich database in the field of nuclear materials identification and allocation is becoming a serious problem for the social national and international security.

Some legislative setting has been framed and institutionalized in 1995 by the (IAEA), concerning Incident and Trafficking. The number of clandestine, felonious episodes has, however, surpassed 2,300 cases ever since. It is true that the majority of these situations were only regarding industrial and medical use of these elements in different dosages, but the other ten to fifteen percent of the situations reported nuclear materials that have been left outside the regulatory framework, which represents a possible danger because of the impossibility to enclose and hold the agent accountable.

What nuclear forensics is

The nuclear forensics field is highly specific and distinct and it has drastically evolved since the ‘90s but its progress rate is not fast enough compared to the illicit reported events that have been repeatedly reported. The record of scientific publications in the field of study has increased as well, and along with it the institutionalized interest for the area, but the works in the domain still don’t get over one hundred a year.

The ideal set of measures that should be taken in order to institute a valid framework in the field is by international collaboration concerning the standardized nuclear materials, which literally implies investment in developing analysis and signature identification methods for nuclear materials, whose data has to further be examined and securely registered in parallel with investment in training experts to assure an implementation leverage of the legislative framework, in order to control felonies and criminals evading prosecution.

Of all the chemical elements, uranium and plutonium are the most distressing in matters of potential social danger, as they can easily indicate proliferation or nuclear terrorism. Some of the examples that are most pressuring are scrap metal combined with grams of high uranium or even kilograms of natural uranium, as well as gram-sized uranium metal samples. These highly dangerous and possibly threatening elements on the list are based on previous investigations or identification cases.

For instance, in Munich airport in Germany there have been seized 300 grams of plutonium oxide powder, back in 1994. As a rule, most of the identifications that have been performed took place in airports, seaports, national frontiers and, rarely, in state territories that were suspected for possession. But in order to be legitimately impeachable the possession has to be linked to a law in implementation, which sometimes is highly improbable to happen. If, however, there is a legislative ground on which the nuclear forensics can take action, the answers they are required to provide to the police officers regard the identification of the law that has been broken, the time and date of the illicit material production, the intended use of the suspect, the place where the illicit material was supposed to rrive to as well as if a pattern can be drawn.

The origin and history of such a radioactive material can be identified following numerous standardized procedures. Some of the most popular in the field are the analysis of its chemical and physical signatures, such as microstructure, appearance or isotopic and elemental composition. An illustrative example would be the identification of an isotope ratios of strontium impurities to have been mined in Australia or Namibia, once in a sample of natural uranium. Uranium-236 indicates, for instance, that the composition was irradiated in a power plant. Thus, the chemical and physical signatures suffer different kinds of variations throughout a nuclear fuel cycle.

The broader challenges in nuclear forensics regard many development directions, from the legal framework and scholar bibliography to innovative analytic methods to be validated, procedures that require other smaller steps to be followed, such as the robustness of the signatures that has to be proven in order to become standardized or the interpretation techniques that have to be solidly supported by substance.

Analogously, developing nuclear workforce implies solid scientific education in physics and chemistry, specialization in radio-chemistry, nuclear physics or engineering. The first systematic technical support should be given by universities, through specializations in forensic courses complementary to these fields of study, along with internships and placements in nuclear laboratories in order for the newly trained to gain experience as well. These training programs should be internationally accredited, in order to refer to very similar legal framing in order to prevent differences to encourage nuclear weapons to be created and developed. One of the institutions that could contribute to the scientific studying planing is the Nuclear Forensics International Technical Working Group, whose practitioners have founded in 1995 the Group of Eight (G*) countries.

How to Know if a Career in Criminology is Right for You

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The field of criminology has been attracting a lot of interest lately, somewhat due to the glamour portrayed on the plethora of , like CSI, NCIS, and others. What is a criminologist? These positions, generally employed by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, are responsible for a variety of job duties, including analyzing criminal behavior, criminals’ methods, digesting the information to create logical interpretations, and in turn, taking your analysis to help prevent or predict new criminal activity.

Day to day tasks might include questioning suspects, studying demographic data, behavior, and creating criminal profiles. Criminologists are required to maintain extensive records and write reports of their findings, as well as making presentations to law enforcement agencies and their peers. Shift and overtime work is frequently required, but as you gain experience, positions may open to you at consulting firms, or with governments and universities. According to the , the field is expected to grow faster than average between now and the end of the decade, and people with advanced degrees can be expected to be offered the best opportunities.

Is criminology the right field for you?

Criminology is a fast-paced, exciting, and demanding field, and people who are attracted to it are generally interested in bettering society, but are stimulated by the atmosphere and climate that the position brings, and the type of energy it requires. If you have passion for the description, this might be the right field for you; there are many different aspects of positions in criminology that might further fuel your interests: technology, foreign cultures and languages, performing in depth analyses, science, extensive research, and community outreach are all sub-fields of the career path that might excite you.

Within the career field, and the agencies that employ criminologists, there are a number of subsets of the position that require personnel with a variety of backgrounds, including statistics, graphic design, IT, accounting, investigators, sociologists, engineers, and linguists to mention a few. A degree in criminology is a primary requirement for entering the field, and advanced degrees are helpful. In a program designed to help you advance in this career field, you will study a core group of subjects, like criminal psychology, sociology, math, science, communications, statistics; physical, life sciences, and geography are also helpful, depending on what aspect of the field you are going to pursue.

Advanced degrees add specializations to your core learning, and may amplify on the subset field you have selected for your career in criminology. What courses you choose will be dictated by your chosen subset, but may include more advanced studies, specifically in some of the areas mentioned previously.

Master’s and Doctoral programs will provide you with the opportunity to conduct specific research in your area, and often include practical working internships with agencies that have relationships with your school. A thesis and final exam, written or oral, will cap off your graduate studies in criminology, and amplify the knowledge gained in your undergraduate program.

Joint degrees, like Masters in Criminology combined with Masters in Public Administration prepare you for field management positions for state and local governments. A career in criminology can be a non-stop roller coaster ride of excitement and hard work, while all the time knowing you are helping the community you live in.

Forensic Software. Identifying suspects by tattoo matching

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Video cameras and other types of recorders are not always very effective. In some cases, it’s not enough to have the entire crime recorded in order to accuse the suspect in court. It is not even enough to identify the criminal in cause. There are many problems that can occur during the identification process, among which the clarity of the video recording, the distance from the subject or the possibility that he was disguised.

Important law enforcement agencies have a strong database of tattoos and distinctive marks after which the tracing and finding the suspect is being made. Precisely because of the dimensions of the database there can be further problems consisting in matching a search key word to a tattoo. While this operation seems to be quite simple at a first sight, the entire process of finding a matching tattoo to the description is, in fact, a provoking and daunting investigation in itself. The text-based searching engines complicate the operation even more, whenever the symbol of the tattoo is uncommon. What could go perfectly for a lion, a rose or a gun is a possibly lost job for an encrypted specific symbol.

There is, however, a newer program whose concept belongs to has found a solution to match the image on the recording with the possible correspondences on the database. The program is very efficient because it works by identifying essential common points of the two compared images, called key-points. The name of the program is TattooID and the technique of the key-points is usually infallible, the same used in the fingerprints examination software programs. The main advantage of the program is the elimination of the human factor and the lack of subjectivity of the software in analyzing and matching, which has proven to be four times more effective than the classical word based searching engine.

Such a much needed breakthrough is, in the first place, a great complementary platform for the situations in which face recognition is impossible, as well as effective. Another characteristic of the program is that it could even help the ongoing researches and investigations by managing to match and put together the distinctive marks that a band or gang have tattooed as signature, belonging and trust sign. Tattoos are one of the most common signs to designate membership inside a mafia organization.

The engine could also help the police by identifying false identities based on the color and pixel recognition through the biometric software. , a biometric tech company has licensed the software, which also provides face-matching and fingerprints recognition along with this new biometric characteristics.

Starting with 2014 the Federal Bureau of Investigation is going to use the Next Generation Identification (NGI) automating the process of identifying or eliminating suspects by biometric software. The Biometric Center of Excellence (BCOE) will be able to operate the program of image matching with or without any descriptive data, while if the descriptive information is irrelevant the software is going to ignore it in the matching process. Applying the research with the image-based matching technology, the database is also going to determine the symbols and other cryptic information as it is going to suggest possible meanings of their association.

Victim identification is as important as suspect identification through image matching technologies, especially given the fact that many of the bodies decompose quickly, in adverse conditions, while identifying through tattoos remains the only viable option because of the depth of the ink layer in the skin.

Which States Have the Highest Crime Rates

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Knowing the crime rates for states can be very valuable information in making many life decisions. It is important to be aware of crime rates when moving to a new home, seeking employment, or even considering a future career. Crime rates play into many aspects of our daily lives, so it is important to know what they are and what they mean. We were able to take a look at which states have the highest crime rates and what this means for you and your future from the opinion of someone with a paralegal degree. These Federal Bureau of Investigations findings are from 2012. Some of these statistics may come as a surprise to you.

Tennessee: This state holds the number one spot for highest crime rates, with 643.6 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents. Tennessee also places first in the country for aggravated assaults. Despite its number one spot for highest crime rate, Tennesse has actually lowered its crime rate since 2007. There have been ups and downs during this state’s crime statistics but with the proper tools and education the crime rates can reach a new low. Lack of education has been shown to be related to crime rates. For those looking to live in Tennessee the crime rates are definitely something to consider, but looking at city specific rates can give an even clearer picture of an area’s crime rate.
Nevada: It may be no surprise to see Nevada on the list. Home to Las Vegas, this busy state attracts people of all types which leads to its crime rates. Nevada has 607.6 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents. Despite being ranked number two in the nation, Nevada is number one in motor vehicle theft, robbery and aggravated assault. The areas within Nevada with the highest crime rates are Reno and Las Vegas, which happen to be the most popular places for tourists due to the enormous casino industry. These statistics should not stop you from enjoying a trip to Las Vegas, but it is important to be on the lookout and make an effort to be safe. It is a must to be mindful of your surroundings and avoid dangerous locations.
Alaska: This state may come as a surprise, but Alaska has managed to reach number three. This state has a rate of 603.2 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents. Alaska is also number one in the entire nation for forcible rape at 79.7 rapes for 100,000 residents. About have suffered a sexual assault incident; this disturbing statistic may be an important factor to consider for those who might be moving there. Alaska also ranks number two for aggravated assaults. Alaska is an unusual state in that its poverty levels are low and its education levels are high, while still maintaining a high crime rate.
New Mexico: This state’s high poverty rates are a factor to its crime rates, at 559.1 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents New Mexico has room for improvement. This state has some of the highest drug use rates in the country, which definitely play a role in its crime rates. Its burglary rates are the second worst in the country, which is important to note for those who are on the market for a home. New Mexico legislators have acknowledged that the crime rates affect the quality of life of their state; this acknowledgement is a positive thing because it shows that New Mexico legislators are willing to work to reduce the crime rates.
South Carolina: This state also is a victim of high poverty rates which increase the number of crimes, with 558.8 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents. South Carolina has the highest rate of property crimes in the nation, as well as some of the lowest percentages of college educated residents. Not all hope is lost for this state, industry is growing with many companies moving their manufacturing facilities to South Carolina as employment rates increase and poverty rates decrease there can be positive change for this state.

These states are the top five in highest crime rates according the . Poverty and education rates are clearly linked to many of the statistics; education is a valuable tool in reducing the rates.

When the ATF and IT Cross Paths

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Like many federal agencies involved in law enforcement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) relies on information technology tools for a variety of purposes, ranging from crime investigation to managing administrative data to information sharing on intelligence with other federal and local agencies. Some of these IT tools are in full swing while others are in planning for implementation. The key takeaway is that IT is definitely becoming an integral tool for the agency. Here are some of the ways it’s being applied.

Geolocation

If you’ve seen the movie “Minority Report,” then you’ll remember the starting story line involved law enforcement using a predictive technology system to anticipate criminals before they commit their crimes. While today’s ATF is nowhere near that level of predictive technology, in identifying the probable locations where firearms will be used in a crime. Using a statistical computer approach named geolocation, the concept uses past historical data to predict trends and probabilities of future gun use. However, the advantage is that the tool conceivably identifies where the crime will occur so law enforcement can anticipate and be ready ahead of time.

Many cities and states already rely on some form of geolocation software to anticipate where to place officers on street assignments. However, they don’t necessarily share their information between each other. ATF wants to take the idea to a national level, starting with 200 high priority locations in the country first, then expanding if successful. There are only so many places the ATF can take the info however, as the online financial crimes certification is essential for officers to train others.

Then NIBIN Program

One of the technology tools ATF already has in place and has been using in one form or another since the 1990s is the . NIBIN, which stands for National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, is used identifying ballistic information to help solve crimes using firearms. The program has been in used for decades and has an extensive success record at contributing to criminal prosecutions. With the advances made to the NIBIN program and related databases, the ATF now regularly shares ballistic information nationally to state and local agencies trying to solve crimes. The information distribution has increased case-solving power considerably.

Shared Communication

Cohesive communication between federal law enforcement agencies has now become a priority, especially after the lessons learned on September 11, 2001 and the attack on the New York Twin Towers. with a major technology and defense vendor to build such as system, so the ATF’s investigation and databases can be shared as well as collecting valuable data from other agencies into the ATF for analysis.

The new project combines both software and hardware to meet the communication sharing goal, while also taking advantage of enhanced security, cloud computing, and mobility networks for immediate field access to the same information as that available at the office. Further, with data consolidation, ATF management expects to enhance its data mining capability for better analysis results as well as finding previously undetected case connections. The initial project will start at the ATF headquarters in Washington D.C. and eventually spread to field offices of the agency.

In Summary

There is no question that computer technology and advances in IT tools, particularly for analysis and predictive services, will continue to be a priority for the ATF as it is other federal law enforcement agencies. The power of technology has become very apparent for developing trends, statistics, forensic analysis and all sorts of case-producing successes. Granted, the value of the tools are realizing some maturing as limitations are now being discussed at the Supreme Court level as well as in public discourse. However, ATF’s use and marriage with IT won’t be going away anytime soon.

Computer Forensics Salary

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The typical requirements of a computer forensics scientist are challenging and imply years of systematic learning, especially technical specific information on as many subdomains as possible. Also, you have to take into consideration that both software and hardware satisfactory knowledge are necessary in order to perform legal operations of satisfactory quality – and under time pressure.

Another vital criterion by which someone should or should not follow this career is the passion for technology and criminal investigations. These are pretty much the basic requirements for anyone interested in having a future in the field. A future scientist also has to obtain relevant certifications in the above mentioned fields with satisfactory grades.

The salary is, in return, quite rewarding especially after a few years of experience in the field, when working as a senior, be it engineer, consultant or analyst per se, will bring an average salary varying from approximately $76.000 to $107.000 according to the sub-specialization and orientation towards the scientific range.

Computer forensics consultant. The job has the best payment rate in the United States of America during the last years in the domain of computer forensics investigations, reason for which a middle employer would earn an average salary of approximately $107 000. Management experience is also required in order to fill this position inside a private company or a public institution. Solid network background is also required in order to understand database infrastructure and network architecture, crucial in analyzing compromised systems and in making track trend reports. A connected specialization is architect IT security, field that may also be of interest for some limited positions in the computer forensics field. The average salary of a security architect is approximately $93 000 a year, while the regular income for a security analyst is about $85 000 a year.

Network Security Engineer. Identifying potential vulnerabilities and backtracking – solving the exploited vulnerabilities that have caused the crime under investigation and safeguarding networks in order to prevent other attacks are some of the main responsibilities part of the job description of this specialist. Another subfield where it is crucial to have solid knowledge in network infrastructure and architecture, the average scientist working on such a position earns about $91 000 a year, taking into consideration the experience in the field, the relevance and attestation level of the obtained certifications and the numbers of worked hours. A very important factor contributing to the diminishing / raising income rate is the nature of the employer: company or institution. A computer systems architect, whose job is similar to the previously presented one and consists in identifying the local problems of a network disposal and resolving it by computational optimization means, with a middle level experience and expertise in the field gains approximately $126 000 a year in the United States of America, being one of the best paid jobs in the field.

Information Systems Analyst. The job description requirements include average network and systems architecture in order to be able to identify and correct troubleshooting and malicious code related problems, a hiring criterion may be constituted by (CISSP) certifications, while the average salary is around $76 000. A connected field with which such a professional may like to associate himself with is Data Security. Such certification in the specific subdomain may contribute to an increasing salary up to approximately $99 000 a year, taking into consideration all the other important factors such as relevant experience in the field, relevant results in the scientific domain and the type of employer who does the hiring.

Computer Forensics Jobs

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Computer forensics investigations require consistent education preparations in the field as well as certifications to testify the capacity of the employee to perform the necessary operation in order to locate, recover or classify the information needed in order to relevantly contribute content-wise to the developed investigation.

Job Certifications for computer forensics

Despite what you may have seen in movies, you need a certification; it doesn’t define who you are or how good you are, but you need it for the job – simple as that.

But the degree/certification is only necessary – and not sufficient. No matter where you work for, be it law enforcement agencies, state agencies or private companies you will need to be able to promptly extract information not only from computers, but also from smartphones, tables, and pretty much every single gadget out there. Therefore, the most general job requirements demand excellent knowledge of all computer subdomains, especially hard drives and database – but you need to know your way around software too. The type of certification chosen by the trainee is defining for the type of computer forensics job it will apply on, since the specifics are continuously developing in the field.

There is no classification of computer forensic types per se, but here is one that applies pretty well:

Ethical Hacker. Going through the techniques most of the hackers use in order to jeopardize technologically stored information helps improving the precision of the backwards route in examining the exact steps that have been followed.

Security Analyst. The domain of information security knowledge is very challenging taking into consideration the penetration testing rate and the backtracking requirements, reason for which such specificity has an increasing requesting rate in the field. Reverse Engineering is a related specialization in charge with backtracking the hacking phases that the database has been through.

Crime Investigation and Malware Analyst are another two connected fields of specialization. Gathering evidence, finding necessary information for the investigation, converting the recovered files and information into compatibility programs, responding to incident reports and suggesting technological improvement when needed are the key in solving examinations after the damage has been made.

Data discovery. The capacity to find the encrypted data constitutes the first important step in the investigative process, reason for which it is highly important to be efficient, therefore the hiring rate is higher for the specialists with a solid knowledge background and capacity to easily adapt to a situation or work in stress conditions.

Job Positions

Computer forensics jobs’ names vary from a company / institution to another. A digital forensics investigator for instance in a company will be called digital forensics analyst or examiner in other organization.

The main scale on which a regular forensics computer analyst can evolve goes through the following stages: Security Administrator, Information Security Analyst, Information Security Manager, Web Security Manager and Information Security VP or Director. Of course, these degrees are rather qualitative than descriptive, therefore they only outline the experience of a computer forensics specialist in the field and the competitiveness over time and not the direction of the job.

Descriptive job positions range from consultant to engineer, after the following scheme: Forensics Consultant (the position is an entry level based function), Forensics Administrator (another entry level position), Forensics Documentation and Media Exploitation, Digital Forensics Analyst / Examiner (the name depends on the institution that performs the hiring), Malware and Security Forensics Investigator, Forensics Accountant (usually opted for by middle positions) and Data Visualization and Backtracking Forensics Engineer (senior position).

The job positions and descriptions from the work contract never get to resume to the specifications in there, since the work of a computer forensic investigator in the field is in continuous progress, reason for which technical knowledge of both hardware and software basics is required on any hiring process.