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> I lost all faith and humanity A little off-topic, but could you elaborate on that a bit?

shakna 10y ago
76 cases in 2 years. I was 18 when I started. 73 were child pornography. 69 depicted rape. 65 also depicted some sort of effluence. 52 were depicting individuals I got to see in the court room. Whereas, when I pivoted to web design, the worst I could say about someone was that they were annoying or didn't document things. (For interest's sake, the other 3 cases were murder.)
- Esau 10y ago
  I don't think I could do that work; even though I already have a low opinion of humanity. I'm glad you were able to find something you like better.
  - shakna 10y ago
    Still looking for something with that same problem solving appeal. I do a little embedded work now. But forensics, at least when you're working with the justice system, teaches you that people are capable of anything. The money was awesome, and gave me a great start, but now I value everything else more. Good workplace, time for my family and clients who don't make me feel like a saint. Less criminal forensics might be different.
    - patcheudor 10y ago
      Security research is where it's at from a problem solving perspective. With your background in forensics and web design it shouldn't be much of a jump.
- Inconel 10y ago
  Also off topic but if you don't mind sharing, how did you come to work in this field, particularly at such a young age? And were you working for the government/law enforcement or are there private firms doing this sort of work? And most importantly, was there some kind of support system in place to help you deal with the sort of things you were being exposed to?
  - shakna 10y ago
    Forensics fascinated me all through high school. The IT guy got sick of me bypassing his security, and so tasked me with finding the holes, basically making a destructive bored student into an asset. When I hit university, they were looking for a entry level security jack-of-all-trades. Thanks to prior and doing well when interviewed by the sysadmin, which partially involved breaking in to a VM, they hired me. The uni was a subcontractor for the police, and i got pushed to the forensics team by consistently bypassing encryption and recovering data faster than the team, with more information. Like three files were deleted at the same time, because they shared fragmentation with this page file. My age was constantly questioned in-court, but a good track record, and the ability to make a jury laugh were usually enough to get the lawyer to review my skill instead. It isn't unusual for university's to be employed by government in Australia, and my university also had a partnership with IBM. Support-wise, I had a team of business psychs at IBM and the uni, which was useless, and a trauma team through Victoria Police, and they were amazing. Wouldn't have made two years without the trauma team. Many coffees, tears and angry rants. Having someone you can talk to about an active case was always nice. I was never meant to know who the defendant might be, but a profile photo, and video of the same person hitting a child who called them daddy... And I'd be ranting in the office. The police team had the training and experience to get the anger down, and focus me on the task of ensuring that I scoured the machine for every tiny piece of information. Let's end on a happy note: A man was accused of murdering his daughter. Instead, I found her emails about running away and framing him, and Missing Persons used that to find her. The guy got aquitted. That was a good day.
    - Inconel 10y ago
      Wow, thanks for sharing your story. I'm happy you're doing something that you personally enjoy more as your job now, but I'm also glad you were able to devote a few years of your youth to such a worthy cause. I'm sure there are many victims who are very appreciate of your efforts as well.
    - Fnoord 10y ago
      I'm under the assumption that certain professions require what they call a 'thick skin' while actually the people who can work there for long time have a lack of empathy (because else they wouldn't be able to cope with the reality of their work). Since you've been a professional in this field I am curious about your viewpoint on this matter.

76 cases in 2 years. I was 18 when I started. 73 were child pornography. 69 depicted rape. 65 also depicted some sort of effluence. 52 were depicting individuals I got to see in the court room. Whereas, when I pivoted to web design, the worst I could say about someone was that they were annoying or didn't document things. (For interest's sake, the other 3 cases were murder.)

Esau 10y ago
I don't think I could do that work; even though I already have a low opinion of humanity. I'm glad you were able to find something you like better.
- shakna 10y ago
  Still looking for something with that same problem solving appeal. I do a little embedded work now. But forensics, at least when you're working with the justice system, teaches you that people are capable of anything. The money was awesome, and gave me a great start, but now I value everything else more. Good workplace, time for my family and clients who don't make me feel like a saint. Less criminal forensics might be different.
  - patcheudor 10y ago
    Security research is where it's at from a problem solving perspective. With your background in forensics and web design it shouldn't be much of a jump.
Inconel 10y ago
Also off topic but if you don't mind sharing, how did you come to work in this field, particularly at such a young age? And were you working for the government/law enforcement or are there private firms doing this sort of work? And most importantly, was there some kind of support system in place to help you deal with the sort of things you were being exposed to?
- shakna 10y ago
  Forensics fascinated me all through high school. The IT guy got sick of me bypassing his security, and so tasked me with finding the holes, basically making a destructive bored student into an asset. When I hit university, they were looking for a entry level security jack-of-all-trades. Thanks to prior and doing well when interviewed by the sysadmin, which partially involved breaking in to a VM, they hired me. The uni was a subcontractor for the police, and i got pushed to the forensics team by consistently bypassing encryption and recovering data faster than the team, with more information. Like three files were deleted at the same time, because they shared fragmentation with this page file. My age was constantly questioned in-court, but a good track record, and the ability to make a jury laugh were usually enough to get the lawyer to review my skill instead. It isn't unusual for university's to be employed by government in Australia, and my university also had a partnership with IBM. Support-wise, I had a team of business psychs at IBM and the uni, which was useless, and a trauma team through Victoria Police, and they were amazing. Wouldn't have made two years without the trauma team. Many coffees, tears and angry rants. Having someone you can talk to about an active case was always nice. I was never meant to know who the defendant might be, but a profile photo, and video of the same person hitting a child who called them daddy... And I'd be ranting in the office. The police team had the training and experience to get the anger down, and focus me on the task of ensuring that I scoured the machine for every tiny piece of information. Let's end on a happy note: A man was accused of murdering his daughter. Instead, I found her emails about running away and framing him, and Missing Persons used that to find her. The guy got aquitted. That was a good day.
  - Inconel 10y ago
    Wow, thanks for sharing your story. I'm happy you're doing something that you personally enjoy more as your job now, but I'm also glad you were able to devote a few years of your youth to such a worthy cause. I'm sure there are many victims who are very appreciate of your efforts as well.
  - Fnoord 10y ago
    I'm under the assumption that certain professions require what they call a 'thick skin' while actually the people who can work there for long time have a lack of empathy (because else they wouldn't be able to cope with the reality of their work). Since you've been a professional in this field I am curious about your viewpoint on this matter.