Leron Gray - From Navy E6 to Pentester, SANS Mentor and Nerdcore Rapper!

Leron Gray is a man of many talents. Although he didn't really get into infosec until much later in life, he always had a creative side. He now finds himself as a pentester working from home and a nerdcore rapper producing amazing beats!

BIO

Leron is a penetration tester and a ten-year Navy veteran with four years of experience as a Cryptologic Technician (Networks), focusing primarily on offensive cyber operations. He holds a Bachelor's degree from Dakota State University in Cyber Operations. With a passion for Python, he loves automating tedious daily routine tasks for efficiency and considers himself to always be in a position to learn more and pass on knowledge. He always enjoys competing in as many Capture-the-Flag events as possible and also often performs as a nerdcore rapper.

Leron currently holds eCPPT, eWPT, GPYC, GPEN, GAWN, GCFE, and GICSP certifications. He also maintains a blog and maintains an active Twitter discussing music, information security, and wrestling.

Notes

Went to a high school that made you choose majors
Grew up poor, was not allowed to go out much
Technological learning came from school
Didn't really get into computers until he was 25
Has been in music since Jr. High School (Marching band, jazz band, and concert band... all the bands)
Networking is the biggest thing that Leron says would help
Leron offers his passionate opinion on "aptitude" (it's a pet peeve of his)

Quotes

"I learned a lot... I made sure not to waste any opportunity for learning."
"Job searching, in general, is a pain."
"I don't think I would be where I am right now if I hadn't gone out and made that effort."
"One of the big deals that people had were degrees. I wasn't really sure why; I have 10 years of IT/Cyber experience."
"It turned out the company no longer owned that server. Their DNS was still pointing to it though."
"I took Java in high school and was really bad at it and I found out everyone is bad at Java, so it doesn't really matter."
"It's so much easier to learn when you have a problem to fix."
"It's not even just information security that learning Python could help... it could be anything you do... often enough to warrant not to do it [manually]."
"Nobody does a CTF and expects not to learn something by the time they leave."
"Job searches shouldn't be like that: they should be based on your merit."
"Maybe the person can't get OSCP, but maybe they have the skills or knowledge."
"The idea of aptitude... raises too many borders."