Cybersecurity professionals are adamant about building their home labs and particular about their home networks for several reasons. Firstly, it allows them to do due diligence and protect their personal information from being exposed in an attack or breach. Secondly, it provides a safe space to practice and apply their knowledge and skills. Thirdly, it allows them to gain experience with enterprise software that may be difficult to access or obtain licenses for. Building a home lab demonstrates passion and commitment to the field, and it also serves as a self-learning environment. In this conversation, Michael and Samuel discuss the importance of home labs for learning and experimenting with different technologies. They highlight the use of PiHole for DNS management and the benefits of redundancy in network infrastructure. They also discuss the value of open-source tools like Zentyal for server management and authentication. The conversation touches on the significance of API security and the availability of free or low-cost training resources. Finally, they emphasize the importance of community collaboration and self-learning in the field of cybersecurity.
Chapters
00:00 The Importance of Building a Home Lab
07:23 Sample Network Diagram
08:20 Segmenting Your Home Network into VLANs
14:08 Virtual Machines On Proxmox for Network Management
16:38 Docker Containers
18:57 Vaultwarden
20:11 pfSense
21:30 Uptime Kuma
23:30 DNS and Pi-Hole
28:17 Zentyal
30:50 Securing and Managing Access Points
32:25 Hak5 Cloud C2
34:15 Home Lab Setup and Kali Linux
37:09 Learning from APISec University via Home Lab
46:09 Using Your Lab to Learn
Links
pfSense https://www.pfsense.org
OpenSense https://www.pfsense.org
Proxmox https://www.proxmox.com/en
Ruckus Access Points https://www.ruckusnetworks.com
Portainer.io https://www.portainer.io
Vaultwarden https://www.vaultwarden.net
Heimdal https://heimdall.site
Uptime Kuma https://uptime.kuma.pet
PiHole https://pi-hole.net
Zentyal https://zentyal.com
VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org
APISec University https://www.apisecuniversity.com
Takeaways
Building a home lab and having a secure home network is important for cybersecurity professionals to protect their personal information and practice their skills.
A home lab allows professionals to gain experience with enterprise software and demonstrate their passion and commitment to the field.
VLANs are useful for segregating traffic and protecting sensitive devices and data within a home network.
Open source tools like Proxmox, pfSense, and Pi-Hole can be used to set up and manage a home lab and network.
Remote access to the home network can be achieved through VPNs and services like WireGuard.
Using password managers like Bitwarden and DNS blacklisting services like Pi-Hole can enhance security and privacy in a home network. Home labs are valuable for learning and experimenting with different technologies.
PiHole is a useful tool for DNS management and can provide redundancy in network infrastructure.
Open-source tools like Zentyal offer server management and authentication capabilities.
API security is an important facet of cybersecurity and there are free training resources available.
Community collaboration and self-learning are essential for professional growth in the field of cybersecurity.
Sound Bites
“It gives you a safe place to practice your craft and to apply your knowledge, your capabilities into your own space.”
“We did this with Log4J where everybody overnight had to become an expert on Log4J. What is it? Where is it?”
“If you have experience with Splunk, Palo Alto, CrowdStrike, you can get demo licenses, bring it home, install it as a VM in your lab, and then you have skills that you can go out and talk about or demonstrate.”
“PiHole is very rich in reporting and all that, but this is a redundant service. And why is it redundant, you may ask? Because DNS is important. Because it’s DNS, it’s important.”
“You have a ton of different lists that you block.”
“Zentyal provides everything, almost everything that you’re going to get. And more importantly, if you have native Microsoft tools on your Windows installations, you can actually point it to this server and utilize those native tools with this server.”
Keywords
cybersecurity professionals, home lab, home network, due diligence, safe space, practice, apply knowledge, enterprise software, experience, passion, commitment, self-learning, home labs, PiHole, DNS management, redundancy, open-source tools, Zentyal, server management, authentication, API security, free training, community collaboration, self-learning, cybersecurity
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