Joe McCray is an Air Force Veteran and has been in IT security for over 10 years. His background includes both Network and Web Application penetration testing as well as incident response and forensics within the DoD and commercial sector.

Having a home lab is really key in our field. There always seems to be projects you want to work on that require a specific OS or software. You just need hardware at home, whether you are pen testing or doing security research. I grew tired of using laptops, and especially my own laptop. Having some low-cost servers will open up the possibilities.