Forensic certifications-How to get the experience?

So I've decided to pursue a forensics certification next. I am currently in a management type of security position and don't see them paying for any of the associated costs.
I am interested in the CCE certification. I did a bit of research on this and noticed the necessary software is as follows:
Is there any way to get the experience without using these expensive tools? A few of them I believe, are thousands of dollars and I don't have the funds to certify myself. What are my options?
Thanks,
I am interested in the CCE certification. I did a bit of research on this and noticed the necessary software is as follows:
# Norton Utilities
# Forensic Suites
* FTK - Access Data
* Encase - Guidance Software
* Similar Forensic Suites
# Password Recovery Tools
* Password Recovery ToolKit - Access Data
* Passware Kit - lostpassword.com
* Similar password recovery Tools
# A "carving" utility
* DataLifter - datalifter.com
* Similar utility
# A file viewer
* QuickView Plus - Avantstar.com
* Similar Utility
# Suitable wiping utilities
# Suitable checksum or hashing applications
# Utilities that make forensic copies of media
# Utilities to "capture" unallocated space
# CDR Examination Tools
* Infinadyne has excellent CDR/DVD examination tools.
* ISOBuster
# Email Extraction Utilities
# Internet History Viewers
# Metadata Viewing Utilities - Payne Consulting
Is there any way to get the experience without using these expensive tools? A few of them I believe, are thousands of dollars and I don't have the funds to certify myself. What are my options?
Thanks,
Comments
You're missing the keyword here: "similar tools". There are plenty of open source tools you could use to study. Helix, TCT, Scalpel, etc.. If you're going for the CCE, you should likely famliarize yourself with the concepts and make a list of alternative tools. Remember at the end of the day, they all produce results, so you won't need "one defacto" tool if the end result can be replicated and validated.
http://www.opensourceforensics.org/
http://www.digitalforensicssolutions.com/Scalpel/
http://www.opensourceforensics.org/tools/unix.html
Have a look at the computer forensics jobs on dice.com to get an idea of what experience employers are asking for.
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Manual:
http://helix.e-fense.com/Docs/Helix0307.pdf
Homepage:
http://www.e-fense.com/helix/
Check out the book:
File System Forensic Analysis by Brian Carrier
Pearson Publishing
Unless you are working for law enforcement, law firms, military or private investigation company. Otherwise, I don't see where most people will get their experience from. I know people that took the exam and got the job, but the product(aka report) that generate by them are joke because they don't have experience and skill to be in the field. Anyway,... tools are free.
I have many of them at company from the forensic unit. However, you will not get those really cool tools unless you are Law-Enforcement or mil/gov that assign to conduct the real investigation.
I did meet someone who had self-training in forensics, but was unable to get an actual forensics job, so he enrolled into a police academy. Before he actually became an officer, he had acquired enough training and networking contacts to get an appointment as a digital forensics examiner. This points out that it's often not just what you know but also who you know.
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