I've made three case studies so far and will have a fourth up this week. From the feedback I've asked in a short survey about the case study series, here are the results:
- The case studies are beneficial, useful, and job relevant.
- The presentation format works (weekly to bi-weekly case studies).
- Length is appropriate (between 30 minutes to 1 hour).
- Printed certificates of completion are important to 90% of the respondents.
With that, I'll keep going and adding one or two cases a week, more if I find relevant cases to recent news. Personally, I have always benefited from case studies. I get reminders of how investigations are done, tips on how to do them better, and sometimes learn things that I should never do in cases that go sideways. I can tell you that after being assigned to over 100 criminal cases a year for 10 years, you can never learn enough to improve. Some things you can learn may be small but have a huge impact on your case.
In Case Studies #3, the case was solved in 6 months. This was an international investigation spanning several countries and multiple states in the USA, with anonymity services used by the suspect. I know that the investigators involved in the case used everything at their disposal to figure it out and all it took was a few little things to crack it open. This is what case studies is all about.
I mentioned at the start of the Case Study series that I would have a short-run promo occasionally to entice more DFIRrs to start a habit of reviewing cases and continually be in some sort of training. This time, the promo includes the Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard Course. The Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard Course is 13-hours of the tactics, methods, and procedures to do the things that are being done in cyber cases today, in both the criminal investigation world and the private security world. I'm giving it FREE with the Case Study series, but I'm limiting registrations to only 100 or Friday Nov 17, whichever comes first.
If you didn't need another reason for these courses, keep in mind that you should be doing case studies anyway, but when you do them by yourself, the only documentation you will have is that which you jot down on a piece of paper. I'm keeping track of the hours you spend when you complete the each course and case study, and you can print it out for your records. Take advantage of professional development when you can get it because you should constantly be improving your skills by doing something everyday: reading, courses, coding, practicing, teaching, something/anything.
Register here to get the promo price of $75 for both the Case Studies Series and Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard course (promo code "cs-psbk"):
Article Link: http://www.brettshavers.cc/index.php/brettsblog/entry/case-studies-1