SANS Announces the Winner of its Second Annual NetWars Tournament of Champions

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The SANS Institute held its second annual NetWars Tournament of Champions last week in Washington, D.C., pulling together some of the top cyber security talent in the world to face off in an intense two-day competition. In addition to over 30 past champions, more than 100 new NetWars participants vied for the top spot, pitting their defensive, offensive, and analytic cyber skills against each other.

The top winner of the competition was Matthew Toussain (0sm0s1z) a Lieutenant from the United States Air Force.

Matthew was introduced to the industry after the Air Force introduced him to the 17DXA Cyberspace Warfare Operations career field. He contributes to numerous open source projects and is also involved in the development of the U.S. Air Force Academy's Basic Cyber Competency Course, which now trains over 400 students per year.  

"NetWars Tournament of Champions was an all-new sequence of challenges that forced you to evaluate the problem, hypothesize potential solutions, and finally break in. There are few ways to improve your tradecraft that can compare." Said Matthew Toussain, United States Air Force

More than just a game, NetWars is an in-depth learning tool for security professionals. It helps participants hone their skills and provides valuable knowledge of where to expand skills to ensure security professionals stay current on the latest threats. For those who do well in the competition, NetWars can help open new doors and advance career opportunities.

"The NetWars Tournament of Champions pits the best and the brightest security professionals against each other to determine who has the greatest skills when it comes to solving today's toughest, real-world information security problems. To add to the challenge, over a hundred new participants played alongside past champions, building their own skills, testing their mettle, and seeing if they have what it takes to be the next NetWars champion," said Ed Skoudis, Director of NetWars.

NetWars participants compete in a real-world computing environment to test their defensive, analysis, and offensive cyber skills, defending systems and analyzing evidence while trying to take over other target systems and networks. Skillsets range from that of entry level information security professionals honing their skills all the way up to grand masters of information security trying to prove their chops. The intensity of competition is palpable, yet always fun and entertaining.

For more information on SANS NetWars visit: http://www.sans.org/info/146675

About SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest source for world-class information security training and security certification in the world, offering over 50 training courses each year. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, is a certification body featuring over 27 hands-on, technical certifications in information security. SANS offers a myriad of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system—the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to help the entire information security community. (www.SANS.org)   

SOURCE SANS Institute