Digital forensic is the platform where criminal justice meets tech. Cyber or digital forensics is a component of forensic science that deals with analyzing and recovering information from data storage devices - such as phones, computers, networks, and more. The role of digital forensics examiners is to follow computer attacks, learn about the sources, track down hackers, recover stolen data, and help with all types of investigations that have to deal with cybercriminal activity involving computers.
As far as information security is concerned, organizations are failing to look past cybersecurity professionals and data scientists. They believe the expertise they have is enough to deal with an incident around cybersecurity breach. While it may not be necessary to hire the true experts or digital forensics examiners, you can ensure your InfoSec teams possess the forensic knowledge and skills required for improved security measures. Information security training can help your current team learn all the skills and knowledge required to succeed in cybersecurity. Here's all you need to know what it takes to become a digital forensic examiner:
Solid Technical Foundation
The InfoSec team should be able to understand the management, administration, and architecture of networking, operating systems, and virtualization software. The training will help them learn the development concepts related to general software programming. Moreover, it will further enhance the software analytical skills of the team. To become the true expert, the InfoSec team will also be trained for programming languages like C/C++, Java, Python, and other programming knowledge for assembly and scripting. With training for digital forensic knowledge, the team will understand the different types of network load balancers and firewalls and how they can be implemented for cybersecurity success.
Last but not the least, in addition to all the general skills that forensic examiners must have, they should also be able to have a detailed understanding of how switches and network routers work and how the design and evaluate systems to operate in an ideal network infrastructure.
Analytical Talent
To increase the cyber forensic knowledge, the team must have the analytical talent to play the investigative role required to join the puzzle pieces together for solving the case. Most of the times, the information is incomplete or broken down, making it hard to reach to the cybercriminals. With proper analytical skills, the InfoSec team will be prepared to carry out detailed observation, efficient analytical thinking, and precise record keeping.
These are particularly more important at a high-tech intelligence and military cyber unit. The individuals or team as a whole should work together to find patterns and create the correlations for a successful investigation process.
Proper Understanding Of Cybersecurity
With data security training, the InfoSec team can have a better understanding of what cybersecurity is all about. This step is important as it is the core knowledge of cyber forensics. The team can fail to protect against data breaches if it has no idea about the types of security threats and techniques that hackers use to penetrate and target systems. This information does not only help with setting up a strong protective system but also helps prevent crimes in the first place. This skill is crucial as most talented cyber forensics examiners naturally possess this skill.
Tech/Computer Science Skills
If we talk about cyber forensic, it is definitely more technical and wide field as compared to simple information security. This means that any professional forensic examiner will have a background in computer science and must possess high-tech sills. This is exactly what the InfoSec team needs to learn. With training, they can gain a deep understanding of how tech works in this field and how to utilize it for best results. It is best if your team already has experience with programming, computer systems, or other related fields, as it helps to get a good grip with improving cyber forensics knowledge. With prior knowledge, the team will have a better understanding of how digital systems work and interact with each other. They will also be able to detect cybersecurity threat more efficiently.
Organizational Skills
It is okay to have an unorganized desk and still operate as a resourceful forensic examiner. However, if you lack mental organization, you can miss out on a lot. Don't forget, the key role of cyber forensics is to solve the case, which also means a lot of organized record-keeping and staying in the loop until the case is finished. If you are not mentally organized, keeping up with the findings and documenting your research will become a hassle. An unorganized approach for a team member can become a greater concern when the documentation has to be presented to higher authorities, judges, or attorneys.
Communication Skills
Similarly, digital forensics knowledge does not exist in a vacuum - especially in this case where the task is to improve your InfoSec teams' cyber forensics knowledge. The team will be required to work with other people and collaborating with departments to get a clear picture of the incident. Communication is the key. The designated team must be able to communicate with all the people in the department to seek help and get more information to resolve the case. Having both strong speaking and writing communication skills are extremely important to communicate the case and your findings to your authorities and other team members.
Urge To Learn
Unfortunately, cybercrime is growing at a rapid pace. Thus, it is imperative that the InfoSec team keeps up with the knowledge and maintain up-to-date cyber forensics skills to discover ways to be better at the job. Feel no hesitance in keeping up a great pride and be the best in what you do. Whether it is the information security training or other related certifications, the knowledge will only help with break into the digital forensics field.
Techniques, resources, training, and constant willingness to grow is the best way to increase cyber forensic knowledge for any department. The benefits of having such skills on board can be immense for cybersecurity, and thus all organizations should consider offering relevant training to their InfoSec teams.