I didn’t start my course as an expert, I worked hard. So remember that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

You may be wondering what an unusual course this is, well you’re right. Forensic Computing and Security is a branch of digital forensic science connected to evidence found in computers and digital storage media. Everyone that asks me what I study can’t help but to open their mouth wide and say “Wow! You must be smart, does that mean you catch all the criminals?”

Why did I choose this course? Well I’ll enlighten you a little bit. I think forensics and the whole concept of analysing facts and coming up with potential solutions to a problem, alongside a passion for I.T, led me to this course. One of my assignments really illustrated this. It was a CSI (crime scene investigation), and it really made me feel like I was living my dream (cliché – yes I know). The case study was an employee who hacked into the company’s system using a keystroke logger (surveillance software that records keystrokes) to steal IP addresses and confidential information like usernames and passwords. During a search in the employee’s home, a USB was found containing various file types e.g.png files, jpeg files and html files. I used my Linux machine running ‘KALI’ to analyse each file’s metadata. This looks for data after the footer of each file and uses something called an ‘exiftool’ – this gives information about the file, such as the file type. Any data after the footer is decoded and from this I found other employees’ user names and passwords. (this is hidden data).

Another part of my course is collecting evidence in a crime scene. We use the LV Street Wise – this is a place to educate school children on road safety, but also somewhere for university students to find evidence lying around. My job as a forensic computing analyst is to look through the evidence on the device that I find and draw conclusions from it.

Social Life

Bournemouth is a beautiful place and is best known for its sandy beach. I would describe myself as a spontaneous person, which means I don’t have a rigid timetable in the evenings. However, a typical night out would be at Cameo on a Wednesday, which is our student night. There are cocktail master classes, VIP booths and several rooms that play various music, urban being my favourite. There’s also a vinyl room if you like to get messy and cheap drinks too. What more could you want?

To be honest I had cold feet about coming to Bournemouth when reality kicked in, as I was dreading living alone and having to cook my own meals. But the support you get from your first year tutors is immense. Also, the fact that everyone is out of their comfort zone like you means you mingle so much more easily and freely with people and before you know it Bournemouth becomes home for you. I’m pretty certain you readers have mixed emotions about moving away from home, but I’ve been there and done that and would like to assure you that my blogs are here to give you a realistic and practical experience of my life as a student. Happy Reading! 🙂

By Omolola Fagbule