DEDigital Forensics Expert
DE
Career

Digital Forensics Expert

By the numbers
Typical pay
$116,580 / yr
Education to start
Bachelor's degree
Future demand
+8.2% by 2034
People in this job
435K
Figures shown for ·closest of 2 O*NET occupations
The work
A day, hour by hour

No two cases are alike — here's a representative day on an active breach investigation:

08:00
Case briefing

Review overnight alerts and get assigned to an active breach investigation.

08:30
Evidence imaging

Create a forensic bit-for-bit copy of seized drives — originals stay untouched.

09:30
Deep-dive analysis

Dig through disk image for deleted files, logs, and hidden attacker artifacts.

11:30
Network log review

Comb through captured traffic to trace exactly where the intruder moved.

13:00
Malware teardown

Reverse engineer a suspicious executable to expose what it was built to do.

14:30
Judgment call

Decide: image the live system now, or shut it down and risk losing volatile memory?

15:00
Report writing

Translate raw findings into plain-language documentation a jury can follow.

16:30
Chain-of-custody check

Verify every evidence log is airtight — one gap can sink a court case.

17:15
Investigator sync

Brief detectives or legal team on findings; flag what still needs answers.

Things you do
  • Dig through seized devices to find hidden or deleted files.
  • Piece together exactly how a hacker broke into a system.
  • Recover deleted, encrypted, or corrupted data from hard drives.
  • Reverse engineer malware to figure out what it was designed to do.
  • Write detailed reports explaining your findings in plain language.
Decisions you’ll make
  • Is this anomaly a real attack, or just normal weird system behavior?
  • Should I image the live system now, or shut it down to preserve the disk?
  • Have I collected enough evidence to tell a solid story in court?
  • Is this piece of data actually relevant, or am I chasing a rabbit hole?
  • Can I explain this technical finding clearly enough for a jury to trust it?
Education Pathways · how you get there
34 in 100 went the college route · 66 in 100 found another way in None, typically
Education mapped from O*NET:Forensic Science Technicians · 45% related
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