Have I gone wrong a...
 
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Have I gone wrong already?

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(@user24)
Posts: 12
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Topic starter
 

Hi,

I'm considering a career in forensics, but I think choice of degree isn't ideally suited to forensics. It's taken me a while to realise what direction I want my career to take. I'm in the final year of a joint honours BA in "Information Technology and Philosophical Studies".

The reason I took Philosophy was that I am interested in AI, as well as philosophy itself. I'm 24, but have no A-Levels, so it was hard for me to find a university willing to accept me on my experience alone; this is why I couldn't do a pure Computer Science degree.

I've got 3 years experience as a senior PHP/mySQL developer, mainly writing admin backends for web databases, fairly technical stuff like building multi-lingual CMS's from scratch, but my focus has shifted during my degree and I'm now less inclined to pursue a career in straight programming and would instead be interested in either pen testing or forensics. So, I have a pretty strong background in web-based programming (eg, a CAPTCHA script I developed has been used by mozilla and apple), but I don't have the strict computer science credentials that appear to be pretty essential to the forensics business.

Your opinions on where I should go from here are greatly appreciated.

To get a better idea of my background, you can look through my website at puremango.co.uk. I've read a lot of the "newbie help" topics in this forum, and I've had a strong interest in computer security for some time, but it's always been web-orientated until now. Should I try to get some experience in things like windows API programming and then target the forensics industry, or would it be better to get an MSc in forensics first? Or is there another route I've missed?

To pre-emptively answer some questions I've seen come up in other topics

I'm interested in forensics because I think it offers a wide range of technical challenges, while also being a worthwhile cause. I've been marginally involved in anti-spam forums and I really enjoyed sifting through whois records, email headers, and other related info to try to find their true identities, but I was frustrated that I couldn't report that information to anyone but the ISPs, who were unresponsive a lot of the time.
I don't want to spend my career writing the same things over and over.
I also don't have a lot of the skills needed, and I think it would be a good challenge for me
I've got some experience administrating linux servers, and a lot of experience with all sorts of windows issues, nothing mac related yet.
I've played with a lot of tools, such as file recovery software, a lot of the sysinternals stuff, packet sniffers, crypto, password recovery tools -etc. and I enjoy learning how to use them and how they work. I'd like to improve my C enough to be able to code some of them myself.

Anyway, I think I've rambled on too much, but if I've managed to keep your attention thus far, your thoughts would be appreciated

thanks,
-h.

 
Posted : 05/03/2007 9:08 am
 ddow
(@ddow)
Posts: 278
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Where's your passion?

While you may have to do other work to support that passion for a time, eventually you should be self-supporting in that passion. May not be easy and may never be lucrative, but if your happy everyday doing what your doing does it really matter? Food in the plate, warm bed. Everything above that is good.

As to "strict computer science credentials" I can't speak to the UK. In the US they're not near as important as experience. Be creative in gaining your experience and you should be OK.

 
Posted : 06/03/2007 7:01 pm
(@user24)
Posts: 12
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for your advice.

re passion, that's been the problem so far; I've just "fallen into" PHP/mySQL development, and it's only recently that I've realised just how much I enjoy investigating things; it's hard to put into words, but I just find the tools and methods involved in forensics really interesting to play with. It's so in-depth. I guess I'll just see what areas in the job market appeal to me rather than trying to push myself in a direction that I may later realise isn't actually for me. At the moment I'm getting the feeling that forensics will suit me, but of course that might change.

thanks again.
-h.

 
Posted : 07/03/2007 5:30 am
 ddow
(@ddow)
Posts: 278
Reputable Member
 

Forensics is in depth. Don't expect to become an expert right away, but do keep plugging at it. I've learned a lot of things but this is one of the harder. That is the challange and where enjoyment comes from.

 
Posted : 08/03/2007 2:22 am
(@user24)
Posts: 12
Active Member
Topic starter
 

Of course! The reason I find it so appealing is that it's so in-depth - if I can master it quickly then I can get bored of it quickly. In fact, I rather get the feeling that it's not the sort of thing that can be 'mastered' and is instead a continual learning process.

 
Posted : 09/03/2007 3:28 am
(@trewmte)
Posts: 1877
Noble Member
 

I rather get the feeling that it's not the sort of thing that can be 'mastered' and is instead a continual learning process.

Good observation. You never stop learning and particularly in this area of technological science - there are constantly new developments and innovative and updating methods to produce a technology.

 
Posted : 09/03/2007 4:52 am
(@user24)
Posts: 12
Active Member
Topic starter
 

I rather get the feeling that it's not the sort of thing that can be 'mastered' and is instead a continual learning process.

Good observation. You never stop learning and particularly in this area of technological science - there are constantly new developments and innovative and updating methods to produce a technology.

thanks.

I think I'll just keep tinkering and learning new things, and hopefully I can steer my career towards this eventual goal.

 
Posted : 11/03/2007 3:50 am
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