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 avendor's training program. Still others are self taught and prefer to either use online resources or books. All of these are valid ways toget educated on digital forensics, pick upnew skills and polish existing ones. Here are sections to help both the newly interested and the long-time pracitioner 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 specialized forensic training later. Here iswhat the DFA founders have come up with, and comments are welcome via email.
Sample Educational Roadmap for Newbies:
Operating systems (Windows, Unix at a minimum)
Hardware basics - (this job frequently requires taking computers apart to get at their hard drives)
Networking Protocols and Operating Systems
Scripting Language(s) - Perl and shell scriptingare a good start
Principles of Investigation
Legal Studies related to investigation
File systems and data structures
Evidence handling
This won't get someone to the point of being a forensic practitioner, but it will prepare them for the specialized study that is required to learn to do the job well. It will make it easier to understand the digital forensic concepts.
It's worth mentioning here that there is an excellent and free training resource in the CERT Virtual Training Environment, which covers a range of forensic and foundation topics. The Category dropdown shows the range of training available.