For the cybersecurity career professional paper, I want to present about the digital forensic investigator career, one of many careers in the Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework). (NICE Framework, 2022) First, we need to know the definition of digital forensics for making us more understand this career. Digital forensics is the process of science that focuses on the recovery and investigation of the material or evidence which can find in cyberspace and digital devices that relate to cybercrime. On the other hand, we can call it a process in which someone preserves, identifies, analyzes, and documents the digital evidence that cybercriminals make when they commit the cybercrime, to use as evidence in the court or criminal justice system. (EC-Council. 2022)
So, the digital forensics investigator career is a cybersecurity professional career that relates to or uses the process of digital forensics for businesses, companies, and many law enforcement agencies of government. It is a career that is always active or has an important role when cybercrime happens or trend to happen in daily life, for example, if the company or government has a security breaches situation, people who are digital forensics will have the responsibility for analyzing and determining many factors of how the security breach happens such as how the cybercriminal gained the access to the network, Did the cybercriminal took information or planted malware or not, etc. Then, they also have a significant role to recover data such as photos, videos, emails, etc. in every storage related to the cybercrime that may have been deleted or manipulated, supporting the justice process by providing digital evidence. (EC-Council. 2022) Moreover, digital forensics investigators may be necessary to give testimony in court if the court needs it.
To succeed or be an expert in this professional career requires people who be digital forensics investigators to have some skills viz 1. they must understand the different existing and emerging technologies, 2. They must have strong communication skills and also good writing skills (soft skills), 3. They must have the ability to discover, analyze, and interpret the data or information, 4. They must have the ability to present and make it easy to understand the information when they are finding it. 5. They must have critical thinking and always give attention to detail, and 6. They must have knowledge of computer networks, operating systems, programming languages, and digital forensics tools. Even though this career requires many abilities and some certificates such as Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI), GIAC Certified Forensic Examiner (GCFE), etc. but people who have this career also have a high return. They have an average yearly salary is $66,698, and some people who have a high ability can make more than $90,000 annually. (BasuMallick, 2022)
After we study this career, we can see cybersecurity digital forensics career is a career that clearly shows the relationship between the principle of social science and cybersecurity. For the principle of relativism (one system leads to changes in other systems), it shows criminal justice systems in the present day need to have digital evidence from digital forensics because now it has many cybercrimes that happen in the cyber world instead physical crime. It is a career that needs to have objectivity and ethical neutrality principles because digital forensics usually provides evidence that relates to the court and criminal justice, so it should not have a bias or be unethical when they do something in this career. And it also relates to the parsimony principle of the social science that digital forensics investigators should present the information they found simply as possible to make people easy to use as evidence and understand. Moreover, it clearly shows it relates to the empiricism principle because the digital forensics investigator always doesn’t rely on an opinion or hunch but uses the digital forensics process to find the evidence which is real to sense.
Moreover, from digital forensics investigator demographics and statistics in the U.S., it found statistics by gender show 65.1% of these careers are men and 34.9% of these careers are women, in addition, it also found males have an average income of $64,727 but females have an average income of $62,184. The same statistics by race show 62.8% as White, 15.1% as Hispanic, 10.1% as Asian, 7.8% as Black, and 4.2% as other. (Zippia, 2022) It shows some challenges this career has with marginalized groups. First, this career should have more diversity with gender because now it shows it has a male more than a female in this career and it will make more efficient in work if it has diversity from the different gender’s perspectives. Second, it should increase income for females in this career to be equal to males because it will promote equality of this career to society. Lastly, this career should have more diversity in the race because now it lacks diversity by a race which has more than half been white, and it will make more efficient in work if it has diversity from the different race’s perspectives.
So, I can find many concepts from these digital forensics investigator careers that relate to the concept from the class viz first, it is one of the cybersecurity careers that is also associated with the principles of social science. Second, it is an interdisciplinary career that relates to cybersecurity and also criminal justice. Third, the demographic of this career shows this career lack diversity which same as the concept from the class that females and minorities are underrepresented in a cybersecurity career. Lastly, it is a career that requires many abilities such as organizational skills and skills to work with documents on which to transfer the available information that matches the concept of characteristics of a cyber professional in the class.
In the conclusion, a digital forensics investigator career is a cybersecurity career that has a significant and necessary role in society, especially in the criminal justice system in the present day. It supports law enforcement agencies of the government to keep the peace in society by providing digital evidence that cybercriminals make in cyberspace to use in court. It is a career that requires many abilities and has a high return. Even though it lacks diversity for now, but can’t deny it is one of the most interesting careers for people who study in cybersecurity major in the present day.
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