Coffee Musings of a Cyber Security Expert

  Last week we talked about why you might want to own a home lab, if you're keen on the technical side of cyber security. The first impediment to building a home lab can be the cost of equipment, so let’s break through that barrier. Even an older laptop, say from the last 7 to 10 years, can often be more than capable for starting out. If you only have one laptop and it’s your “daily driver,” you won’t want to turn it into Dr Frankenstein’s monster. A better plan is to install a type 2 (host-based) hypervisor such as VirtualBox , and then create your world of fantasy inside it. A type 2 hypervisor is simply an application you install on your existing operating system, such as Linux, macOS, or Windows. Within it, you can create entire systems. For example, you can install and use a Linux operating system even though your laptop runs Windows. This is an excellent way to learn a new OS. Each of these new systems is called a “ virtual machine .” Under the hood, a VM is really just a fi...

  Anyone who’s had the immense pleasure of sitting across the table from me in a technical job interview knows I like to ask candidates about their home lab. The question usually gets anything from a proud grin to a look of pure shock. I don’t ask because I expect colleagues to spend their evenings “working” in a lab at home. I ask because I want to see what sparks their curiosity - the passion that drives them. And yes, I’ve hired people who’ve said, “Actually, I don’t have a home lab,” because they’ve gone on to share other qualities that matter just as much. A software developer might point me to their GitLab repository or the open-source projects they’ve contributed to. Thinking about this recently over another coffee, I came across a ZDNet article that explains why home labs are worth considering . The author compares a home lab to an artist’s portfolio - a place to showcase skill, knowledge, and the ability to keep up with trends. That portfolio-like quality can be the differ...