Forensics, which means a public discussion or debate, is probably the least understood cyber security domain. Studying and understanding forensics is fun and at the same time requires a lot of learning, essential to make a cyber-security professional proficient in the field.
As digital technology is being widely used by criminals across the world, enterprises are facing highly sophisticated cyber-attacks and thus, the need for highly skilled cyber security professionals has gone up manifold.
The attackers or perpetrators are generally extremely proficient in what they do and remove almost all the evidences that they may have left behind. This makes the whole process of cracking the crime a lot more difficult and brings forth a requirement of highly learned and skilled cyber security professionals. The qualities that an individual must have include the ability to learn, analyze the information as well as the situation, retain the facts and draw conclusions.
Computer Forensics
Computer forensics is a collection of evidences vital to act on digital crimes such as fraud and harassment. A methodical approach is followed to decipher the related data and solve cases.
A career in forensic investigation in computer hacking is extremely demanding and requires a lot of hard work and experience to become proficient in the field.
EC Council and CHFI
To cater to all the technicalities, a number of recognized certifications are available in the market, the most in-demand vendor neutral certification being Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) from EC Council. This certification is one of the most widely recognized, industry standard and respected certifications.
EC-Council specializes in Information Security and has been accredited for its CHFI certification. The course is designed upon appropriate investigation and is developed by experienced subject matter experts and digital forensics practitioners.
CHFI certification is designed to impart the skills necessary to identify an attacker’s imprints and collect the evidence to be produced in the court of law. The certification enables professionals to chase, investigate and arrest cyber criminals from anywhere within the world. The course contains a series of forensic investigation scenarios and provides hands-on experience to become proficient in various forensic investigation techniques and tools.
The target audience for this course includes Law Enforcement Personnel, System Administrators, Security Officers, Defense and Military Personnel, Legal Professionals, Bankers, Security Professionals, and individuals interested in the integrity of network infrastructure.
A CHFI certified professional gains expertise in various skills, some of which are stated below:
· Perform incidence response, forensics, evidence collection and digital forensic acquisitions.
· Execute thorough checks on computer hard disk drives or any other electronic data storage media and recover data wherever required
· Responsible for audit trail and evidence integrity
· Collect information from Windows, Mac and Linux and be able to recover deleted files
· Understand responsive activities
· Use forensic technology methods
· Identify data, images and activities required for internal investigation
· Execute anti-forensics detection
· Identify the origin of incidence
· Ensuring that the investigation is handled with confidentiality
To pursue the CHFI course, one needs to have the basic knowledge of cyber security, computer forensics and incident response. To add to it, some prior knowledge of CEH would prove to be an added advantage.
Career Opportunities
Over the past years, the CHFI certification program has gained tremendous recognition among the Fortune 500 companies. The certification undoubtedly floods you with various job opportunities. Even if somebody is working within the security department, gaining a CHFI certification will push your salary even further and greatly increase your chances of promotion.
On an average, the certification enables professionals to earn an annual salary of $96,000, as per PayScale.