David Cowen

David started his career as a penetration tester in 1996, doing information security consulting. While he enjoyed the technical challenges of the work, he quickly found that his clients were focused on satisfying a requirement rather than fixing the problems he uncovered. In 1999 David got the chance to do his first DFIR investigation and found the challenge and career fulfillment he was looking for.

“Not only did I find huge technical challenges to tackle and master I also found clients who deeply cared about the work I was doing and directly benefitted from its results,” he says. “The job satisfaction I get from DFIR, along with the endless new tools and artifacts to be found, means I’ve never grown bored or jaded with the work.”

Today, he is the Vice President at Charles River Associates, where he and his team provide expert witness services in the areas of digital forensics as well incident response services globally. He’s also a certified SANS instructor—teaching FOR500: Windows Forensic Analysis—and he is the course author for the FOR509: Enterprise Cloud Forensics and Incident Response course. David keeps up his information security knowledge by acting as the Red Team Captain for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, a role he’s held for the last nine years.