{"id":8004,"date":"2026-03-11T21:33:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=8004"},"modified":"2026-03-11T22:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:02:15","password":"","slug":"lab-building-series-ep1","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/docs\/lab-building-series-ep1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab Building Series: Ep1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction to lab<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"859\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-17.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8008\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-17.png 859w, https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-17-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-17-768x453.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 859px) 100vw, 859px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lab project introduces provide hands-on experience in IT and cybersecurity. The series will cover building a network, breaking it with penetration tests, and then monitoring and defending against those attacks, all within a safe, controlled environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lab Scenario and Topology:<\/strong> The lab is built around a fictional company, that needs its IT infrastructure. Key issues to be addressed include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Lack of centralized resources, file shares, storage, backups, and security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No user management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disorganized network with uncontrolled device connections.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Concerns about ransomware attacks and a desire for hardened, monitored, and defensible systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hands-on Experience:<\/strong>\u00a0You will gain practical skills in building networks, dealing with virtual machines, and administering systems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safe Environment:<\/strong>\u00a0It provides a safe and controlled environment to learn how to break and defend systems without causing real-world damage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Comprehensive Skill Set:<\/strong>\u00a0By the end of the series, you will learn how to harden systems, conduct penetration testing (red teaming), and perform threat monitoring and analysis (blue teaming).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Industry Preparation:<\/strong>\u00a0The skills taught, such as configuring firewalls, Active Directory, and DNS, are directly applicable to real-life industry scenarios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The proposed network topology includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Virtual Servers<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Email server<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Windows Server for Active Directory, Domain Controller, DNS, and file shares<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ubuntu Server for various services and tool testing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elasticsearch stack for system monitoring and logging<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Networking and Security<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Opnsense Next-Generation Firewall with Sensei feature extensions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Virtual Clients<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Windows 10 client for testing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kali attack machine for launching attacks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>All devices will be connected to a\u00a0<strong>virtual layer 2 switch<\/strong>\u00a0and virtualized using\u00a0<strong>VirtualBox<\/strong>\u00a0or other hypervisors like Hyper-V or VMWare. Future plans may include cloud integration and additional branch sites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Learning Outcomes:<\/strong> By the end of the series, you will gain skills in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Basic network configurations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Configuring firewalls, servers, Active Directory, DNS, and user management.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hands-on Windows and Linux server and client administration.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hardening devices and networks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exposure to penetration testing tools and techniques.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hands-on experience with blue team monitoring and defense against attacks.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>All the best<\/strong><\/em> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction to lab This lab project introduces provide hands-on experience in IT and cybersecurity. The series will cover building a network, breaking it with penetration tests, and then monitoring and defending against those attacks, all within a safe, controlled environment. Lab Scenario and Topology: The lab is built around a fictional company, that needs its&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[47],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-8004","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-cyber-security-lab-building"],"year_month":"2026-04","word_count":328,"total_views":0,"reactions":{"happy":0,"normal":0,"sad":0},"author_info":{"name":"admin","author_nicename":"admin","author_url":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/author\/admin\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Cyber Security lab building","term_url":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/docs-category\/cyber-security-lab-building\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/8004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/8004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8011,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/8004\/revisions\/8011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=8004"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scalemedia.co.za\/cybermedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=8004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}