Need Advice - CHFI (and CEH)

burningstar

Hi guys,

I found this forum while doing some research on EC-Council and their CHFI/CEH training/certifications. I really need some advice and think this forum may provide me with some answers. Please keep in mind as you read my post and reply that I have absolutely no formal educational background in anything IT-related and I have never had a job in IT. I am coming from the perspective of computer crime investigations.

I have a Master's and Bachelor's Degree in a Criminal Justice/Psychology related area. I have worked for the past 9 years in a computer crime related field (investigations). I have gained a lot of technical knowledge in this job and know things now that I truly had no clue about 10 years ago. I have come a long way since then and have attended various trainings/conferences that are pretty technical because of the job I have now but I do not have any formal certifications. So you have an idea of some of my knowledge, I deal with encryption, hashing, anonymizers, IP tracing, etc.

I have been thinking about getting a degree or certification(s) in something more technical for a little while now and have been researching the CHFI and CEH courses/certs through EC-Council because after reading the descriptions I thought they fit what I was looking for knowledge wise but they are also affordable trainings and I have the ability to do it online at my own pace. I have read some negative things on this board about these certs/EC-Council and I can understand that some people here may have a negative opinion because they are coming from a different background than myself (I have read some see them as a joke, or something they just needed for HR purposes, etc.). I totally understand all of these opinions if someone is coming from a much more technical background than myself. However, does the same ring true for someone with my background?

My goal is to gain more knowledge for myself. I have really developed an appreciation for technology and love to learn new things and think that it is always important to learn something new and to keep evolving. Obviously, I think the CHFI would be most relevant to my current career. I am interested in CEH because I just find the topic intriguing and would love to just learn more about it and could see certain aspects being useful with what I do.

Do you guys think I should do these trainings and try to get the certs? What about taking an online hacker course? Should I do a degree program instead (I kind of want to avoid that because it is so much more expensive and I'm not sure if there is really any point in that since I am already college educated)? Are there basic certs/trainings I should do before CHFI or CEH? Are there different trainings/certs that are better for what I am looking for or may apply better to my situation than the CHFI? I have read some people talking about SANS - looked at their site briefly and it seems a bit more expensive than EC-Council but if a certain course/training is way better I am not opposed to paying for it. EC-Council University also has a graduate certificate in Digital Forensics which they told me contains 3 courses, 1 of which covers everything the CHFI training does. That costs around $4400 and I would not be opposed to doing this either but not sure if it's really worth it and not sure if anyone here has any info. about that particular graduate certificate either?

I'm hoping at least someone on here might have a similar background to myself too.

I really appreciate any input on this from anyone. Thank you for any info and for your time, it is appreciated.

danny069

First off, welcome to the forum. Second, you do have IT experience working with encryption, hashing, etc. It is called digital forensics in IT. Since you have your Master's in Criminal Justice, there is no need for another degree from what I see. You have some experience already, so if you were to pursue a certification, the CHFI would be a breeze for you. I would put in your path something more challenging such the GCFA: GIAC Certified Forensic Analyst | GCFA Certification You can also see some other GIAC certs on the right hand side there that would align with what you do now.

mstd0n

Does your current employer offer tuition/education/professional development assistance? If they do, I'd give any of them a shot and keep progressing to tougher more technical courses.

I have taken both CEH and CHFI, but my employer paid for each of them. Having been put out $0 I personally enjoyed the study material and technical labs for each cert. I can understand why some individuals don't respect the certs or company since they are kind of pricey for what you get. Some individuals have said they didn't see a return on investment from the certs, but I was given a promotion to a software test engineer after completing the CEH along with a $15k raise. I completely understand I am just one data point and by no means give evidence of a positive trend for EC-Council certs.

I would just try to decide what you are wanting to get out of your studies. If it is just knowledge, get a subscription to safaribooksonline and you can read course books for an astounding amount of technical disciplines and even some educational videos. If you are wanting some sort of resume bullet for the earned knowledge I would consider cost and recognition/impact in your current/desired field.

/2cents

burningstar

Thank you for the info thus far guys. I will look into the GCFA further, sounds interesting.

I am looking for just knowledge but also want some certifications because they "look" good and you can put it down on paper.

My work does tuition reimbursement but I believe it is only $2,500 per year and it is kind of a long process to get it approved. So I am going into this with the idea that I may just end up paying for it all myself, might try for the reimbursement but with the way budgets are, etc. in this economy I am not going to hold my breath for a reimbursement either.

goatama

I can tell you from experience, that if you already have a deep level of experience with computer crime investigations the course material for the CHFI will infuriate you. A lot of what they tell you is antithetical to proper forensic procedure, even though they tell you these things are important to preserve the evidence. Things like installing and running tools on live systems to preserve volatile evidence, except in doing so you've already compromised the system. They don't differentiate what cases it's appropriate to run these tools on. Just basic things like that.

If you're doing it for knowledge, there are better certs, like danny069 mentioned the GCFA. The whole model behind the EC-Council's business just seems... off. Like, I know it's jumped through some hoops for the DOD with the CEH, but there's some seriously shady business practices going on. It seems more like a for-profit university than a certification training provider.