Discover the Skills of a Cyber Defense Forensics Analyst
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe a cyber defense forensics analyst career path.
- List key skills relevant to the role of a cyber defense forensics analyst.
A Cyber Defense Forensics Career
Let’s explore whether you’d be a good fit for the role of a cyber defense forensics analyst by starting with some questions.
Who are you?
Do you like to solve puzzles? Do you like to analyze large amounts of data to uncover important insights? Are you methodical and detail-oriented in conducting and presenting your work? Have you always dreamed of helping solve crimes and bringing the perpetrators to justice? Does the idea of detective work appeal to you? If so, then cyber defense forensics might be the career for you.
What do you like to do?
Let’s delve deeper into what you as a cyber defense forensics analyst spend your time doing. Cyber defense forensics analysts are detectives who sleuth out what happened at the scene of a computer crime, and document evidence for use in apprehending the perpetrators.
As a cyber defense forensics analyst, you help organizations investigate cybersecurity incidents and look into potential cybercrime activities by extracting evidence from computing systems. You also correlate and cross-reference information found across multiple computer systems, and present your findings either in court as expert witnesses, or to an organization's management team to aid incident response efforts. You extract key data with a goal of understanding the attack context and safeguarding the integrity of data to ensure its admissibility in court.
What type of team do you want to work with?
Cyber defense analysts work in many different settings. You can work for the police or other law enforcement agencies, a computer forensics company specializing in forensics investigations, or for large companies such as banks. You may need to work odd hours to complete your investigation.
Much of your work will be office or computer lab-based, but you can have situations where you need to travel to off-site locations to visit clients, attend meetings, or go to court. You might also need to attend the scene of a crime to help with the seizure of items or examine devices in their original place (or in situ as it’s often referred to).
What is the career trajectory for this role?
As a cyber defense forensics analyst, you generally start your career as a support technician, network engineer, developer, or incident responder to build out your skills and knowledge. As you gain more experience and develop your skills through professional development courses and relevant industry certifications, you can progress toward a senior analyst role, lead a team of analysts and related staff, and eventually become head of security.
You also have the ability as your experience grows for self-employment as a security consultant. Alternative pathways can include a move into a different but related role, such as a cybersecurity specialist or penetration tester.
Why should you consider this career?
There’s a high demand for cyber defense forensics professionals, and career prospects are excellent. For businesses, cyber defense forensics is an important part of the incident response process. As more businesses recognize the importance of securing their systems and technologies, you as a cyber defense forensics professional will find your skills in high demand.
Cyber Defense Forensics Skills
After hearing more about this career, are you getting excited about helping organizations investigate cybersecurity incidents? Let’s turn our focus to the education and skills that are valuable in this profession.
Education
A bachelor’s degree in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field such as computer science, information systems, cybersecurity, or a related field is usually good to have, but not necessarily required.
Experience
Typically, employers look for candidates with anywhere from 1 to 3 years of experience in IT, cybersecurity, or network defense. Skills such as systems or network administration, data analysis, or law enforcement are also useful.
Certifications
Pursuing a certification is a great idea for this field. Certifications that address system security, network infrastructure, access control, cryptography, security assessments and audits, and more allow you to skill up and get your foot in the door. Here are some common certifications for cyber defense forensics analysts.
Certification |
Description |
|---|---|
|
CyberSecurity Institute's CyberSecurity Forensic Analyst (CFSA)
|
This credential is designed for security professionals with at least 2 years of experience. Testing scenarios are based on actual cases. |
|
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This program focuses primarily on validating the skills necessary to ensure businesses follow established computer forensics guidelines. |
|
EC-Council’s Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI)
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This certification assesses an applicant’s ability to identify intruders and collect evidence that is usable in court. It covers search and seizure of information systems, and works with digital proof and other cyber defense forensics skills. |
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International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE) Certified Computer Examiner (CCE)
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This forensic examiner program requires training at an authorized boot camp training center, and applicants must sign the ISFCE Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. |
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Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) Certified Forensic Examiner (GCFE)
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The GCFE certification validates a practitioner’s knowledge of computer forensics analysis, with an emphasis on core skills required to collect and analyze data from Windows computer systems. |
Knowledge
Working as a cyber defense forensics analyst involves evidence collection, forensics for computers, smartphones, cloud, and networks, and an investigative mindset. It is key to have a solid understanding of computer networking concepts, network security methodologies, risk management, computer and privacy laws, and data analytics.
You should be comfortable identifying and extracting data from diverse sets of media, analyzing memory dumps, network traffic, and event log data, and using forensics tools such as Autopsy, EnCase, or Forensic Toolkit (FTK). It’s also useful to have familiarity with law enforcement policies and procedures surrounding evidence seizure and chain of custody.
Business Skills
A huge part of success as a cyber defense forensics analyst is analytical thinking and observation. The ability to find patterns and make correlations is paramount during the investigation process. You should also enjoy communicating with others. You have a responsibility to ensure that the team you work with always knows what’s going on. This is particularly important if you need to testify in a court of law. Your clear and unwavering testimony can make or break a criminal case, and it’s critical to be able to communicate any findings clearly.
Sum It Up
In this module, you’ve been introduced to the goals of cyber defense forensics analysis. You’ve learned more about the importance of cyber defense forensics in helping organizations identify and correlate cybersecurity events and incidents. You’ve also discovered the duties, skills, and qualifications of a cyber defense forensics analyst.
In the next module, Responsibilities of a Cyber Defense Forensics Analyst, we get into the cyber defense forensics process and how to prepare, identify, collect, analyze, and report on cyber defense forensics. Interested in learning more about cybersecurity roles and hearing from security professionals? Check out the Cybersecurity Learning Hub on Trailhead.
Resources
- External Site: SANS Institute: 20 Coolest Careers in Cybersecurity
- External Site: EC-Council: How Well Do You Know Digital Forensics?