ICDIP Accreditation
Accredited Membership of ICDIP is awarded following completion of a portfolio of evidence against a number of skill statements. These skill statements have been identified for five job families, 2 skill categories and against 3 skill levels. Once an individual has identified which is the most appropriate job family, category and level, they are recommended to contact the Accreditation Manager who will be able to advise them if they have an ICDIP Single Point of Contact (SPOC) within their Organisation (Police or Law Enforcement Agency) and the next steps to take. This will also help the individual check their suitability to apply, that they comply with the organisation’s eligibility criteria and to identify if funding is available through the organisation before an application is made. As failure to confirm this may result in the candidate being liable for any fees if the application process is commenced.
If someone is interested in applying from the Private Sector, then they will still need to identify the job family, skill category and skill level , but the expectation is they will be applying as ‘Support ’.
Job families
For the Cyber Digital scheme five job families have been identified. It was decided to go down the job family route rather than roles, as there are so many different job titles, and the actual role conducted under that job title varies from one organisation to another. So, whilst someone may have the title of Digital Media Investigator, the role conducted may actually fit better within the Forensic job family. Below we have detailed the key elements for each of the five job families:
- Analyst - An individual who gathers and critically analyses data to identify associations, trends, key factors, attribution, hypotheses, possible results, and recommendations as part of a cyber digital investigation.
- Forensic - An individual who systematically extracts digital evidence for scientific analysis as part of a cyber digital investigation.
- Investigator - An individual who systematically seeks, gathers, evaluates and presents evidence as part of a cyber digital investigation.
- Intelligence - An individual who systematically identifies, gathers and evaluates information in order to develop intelligence as part of a cyber digital investigation.
- Interviewer - An individual whose main role is to conduct interviews with witnesses and suspects in order to gather evidence and testimony as part of a cyber digital investigation.
Skill Categories
It is important to note that the Skill Categories of Practitioner and Strategist are not a reflection of seniority or grade that an individual holds.
Practitioner – Aimed at individuals who demonstrate ‘doing’ and ‘knowledge’ skills. In the cyber digital environment this will be individuals who undertake the physical aspects of the tasks and processes as part of an investigation.
Strategist – Aimed at individuals who can demonstrate predominantly leadership, negotiation, directing, assessing and organising skills within the cyber digital investigation environment. This will be individuals who undertake the strategic and decision-making aspects of a cyber digital investigation within the Job Families.
Individuals will not be able to mix the Practitioner with Strategist skills and standards as part of the same application. Therefore, care should be taken when identifying whether their strongest evidence will fall under the Practitioner or Strategist Skill Category.
Skill levels
Having selected a Job Family and Skill Category the next step is to identify the Level to apply at.
Junior - This is aimed at individuals studying or who have recently entered the cyber digital investigation profession, who have basic awareness and/or limited practical experience. This level is not appropriate for ‘support’ applications.
Practitioner/Strategist – Aimed at individuals experienced in the job family and operating effectively with minimal supervision. Someone who can demonstrate relevant and practical skills enabling them to competently undertake their role.
Senior – This is the ‘go to’ individual for advice, guidance, knowledge and experience in the Job Family. Someone who can demonstrate evidence of advising; coordinating and communicating; with an advanced understanding of cyber digital investigation.
Support
Support is aimed mainly at individuals who are working in the private sector, although it may also be relevant for some individuals working in Law Enforcement. There are 3 elements to ‘support’ and the skill statements are the same but have the following prefix:
Research – Conducts research into ….
Investigative Support – Provides investigative support into ……
Training - Delivers and / or designs training into …..
Accreditation process
Once individuals have identified the Job Family, Skill Category and Skill Level, if they are within Law Enforcement, the ICDIP SPOC will nominate them to join a Cohort.
When the cohort is due to begin candidates will be sent a Cohort invitation e-mail, this will contain all the relevant documentation needed to complete a submission for accredited membership. However, Candidates are encouraged to commence the gathering of evidence for their submission as soon as they know they are nominated for a Cohort.
Once the candidate submits an application it will then go through an internal review, before being peer reviewed by an accredited Full Member. If applying at Affiliate or Associate, on completion of the peer review it will go before the ICDIP Accreditation Committee (AC) who are responsible for reviewing the recommendation and making the award of Membership. At the Full Member level, the candidate will be invited to an interview, which is conducted by two accredited Full Members, following this their application and the recommendation will go before the AC who again makes the decision with respect to the level of Accredited membership of the ICDIP awarded.