Education means different things to different people. To some, it means a college and a goal of a degree or certificate. To others, it means attending a vendor's training program. Still others are self-taught and prefer to either use online resources or books. All of these are valid ways to get educated on cyber forensics & threat investigations, pick up new skills , and polish existing ones. Here are sections to help both the newly interested and the long-time practitioner in whatever way they prefer.

One of the questions frequently asked is what types of things someone who wants to get into the field should be studying--an educational roadmap. These are the basic building blocks so the person will be able to make the most of the specialised cyber forensics & threat investigations training later. Here is what the ACFTI founders have come up with, and comments are welcome via email.

Sample Educational Roadmap for Newbies:

• Operating systems (Windows, Unix at a minimum)

• Computer architecture (CPU architectures)

• Electronics & Hardware basics - (this job frequently requires taking computers apart to get at their hard drives)

• Networking Protocols and Systems

• Scripting Language(s) - Perl and Powershell scripting are a good start

• Principles of Investigation

• Legal Studies related to investigations

• File systems and data structures

• Evidence handling

This won't get someone to the point of being a cyber forensics & threat investigations practitioner, but it will prepare them for the specialised study that is required to learn to do the job well. It will make it easier to understand the cyber forensic & threat investigations concepts.