Your take on Digital Forensics degree

[Jeff2243]

I am worked all my life in software development. I am currently looking to pursue Masters and saw one concentration on Digital Forensics. Some colleges including APU are offering it. What you guys think about the demand for this degree. Is it something that can help get into high paying job ?

[valsacar]

Law enforcement, some big companies (either directly or as a consultant for specific instances), and also data recovery centers would all use the skills you would (should) learn in digital forensics. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Law enforcement would probably be the lowest paying.

[MISin08]

If there's a data and stats emphasis, there could be a use in fraud detection/prevention.

Phillip

[Chebasaz]

As has been noted, Law Enforcement and legal teams are the usual markets for this skill set. In the IT side of the house, Information Assurance is the primary user. Unless you're coming from one of those background, I'd question the viability of getting a job right out the gate.

On the other hand, if it's just for the "I find this interesting" factor, it's pretty darn neat. I've used EnCase and it's scary what you can pull from even a formatted hard drive. If you end up taking the course, expect a lot of legal education as well (chain of custody, rights of privacy, etc). It's not all going to be technical classes.