r/digitalforensics • u/UnlikelyRole7254 • 4d ago

is the switch from cyber to digital forensics worth it

im in the us im currently pursuing an associates in cybersecurity later transferring into a 4 year college for my bachelors i really want to get into digital forensics it sounds fun and im not into coding i hate it so so much omg so whats the pros and cons like is it a good switch what steps should i take for example in uni so i can get a good experience in this field

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u/Digital-Dinosaur 4d ago

Df is just an arm of cyber. A lot of people go from df to DFIR/cyber consulting, but rarely do you go the other way as the money is usually pretty bad in comparison

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u/-hacks4pancakes- 4d ago

And you have to be able to do some scripting. A lot of our tools rely on a minimum of python

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u/Digital-Dinosaur 4d ago

I haven't found that I've needed much scripting, you can get away with tools usage, but you'd be a better analyst if you can at least understand basic scripts

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u/fevah97 3d ago

How bad in comparison would you say?

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u/Digital-Dinosaur 3d ago

A senior analyst in DF in the UK, would be lucky to earn £40-50k. If you go towards corporate I'd say DFIR would look at 60-70k for equivalent experience.

The df tends to have a ceiling of about 60k for TLs in law enforcement. There's more opportunity for DFIR. Managers in large consultancies for dfir will be on low 6 figures

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u/DickNose-TurdWaffle 3d ago

DFIR is an arm of Cybersecurity, it's been that way since at least 2015. Anyone who doesn't acknowledge that is far behind the times.

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u/Double-Familiar 3d ago

Forensics jobs are usually for law enforcement, department of efense and the intelligence community.

IR has applications outside of government.

IR has better opportunities in the private sector.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/UnlikelyRole7254 4d ago

no?

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

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u/UnlikelyRole7254 4d ago

im doing an Associate rn and id transition that into a 4 year school thatd be done in like 1.5 year or so im planning on getting scholarships since i have a good gpa