National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies
 CyberCareers Home
  About CyberCareers
  IT Career Center
  IT is Everywhere
  Brochure
  Contact Us
  Sitemap
Programs > CyberCareers > Emerging Technologies > Forensics
Cybercareers for the Net Generation forensics
 About IT Jobs
 Salary Surveys
 Internships
 Job Links
 IT Education
 Degree Programs
 Certification
 Financial Aid
 Fun with IT
 Emerging Technology
 IT Interest Inventory
 Job Finder
 Girl's Site
 Teaching Tools
 Overview
 Lesson Plans
 Worksheets
 Community Resources
 Video
 View the trailer!

Requires download of Real Player
Computer Forensics
In recent years, personal computers and computer networks have become tools for illegal activity such as fraud and other kinds of white collar crime. Law enforcement officers and investigators need to know how to extract computer data that can serve as evidence in cases where users are being prosecuted for illegal activities.
 
What is computer forensics?
According to this website at the University of Central Florida : "Forensic Computer Science involves the identification, collection, preservation, examination, and analysis of computer evidence stored in the form of magnetically encoded information." Law enforcement officers, investigators, computer auditors, network administrators, and other professionals have had to respond to the above need for collection of evidence by developing tools and techniques to extract computer evidence that is admissible in court.
 
What would you do as a computer forensics specialist?
You would assist others in the recovery of evidence by accessing microcomputer systems, networks, or data storage devices to recover data and determine whether it has been tampered with, deleted, or damaged. Even data that has been deleted is often recoverable from the hard drive and you would be the person trying to recover it.
 
What kind of training would you need?
You would need a strong background in computer hardware, software systems and networks. Often computer forensics degrees are graduate level degrees.
 
Resources
http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/education/
Bellevue Community College
NWCET is a division of Bellevue Community College, and is partially funded by National Science Foundation grants.
National Science Foundation