Cyber Ranges | SANS Institute

Cybersecurity Simulation Training

SANS Cyber Ranges are interactive, hands-on learning exercises created by renowned SANS faculty. Each range offers replicated networks, systems, and application in a safe, isolated environment where individuals and teams can develop their skills and gain experience without compromising a live production environment.

How SANS Cyber Ranges Benefit Your Organization

Strengthen Protection

Provide hands-on technical training to ensure skills are current to the constant changes in the information security industry.

Training Roadmap

Personalized assessment enables managers to make informed decisions on cybersecurity training forecasts for teams and individuals.

Find Cyber Talent

Scorecard that provides insight into a participant's skill level in a cybersecurity discipline. Identify and recruit staff with an aptitude for information security roles.

CPE Credits

Earn up to 12 CPE credits toward GIAC certification renewal.

4.5 Stars (Over 3K Reviews in 2023)

97%

Recommend SANS Cyber Ranges

93%

Report Skill Development Areas are Identified

40K

Companies Have Trained With SANS in Past 4 Years

NetWars

SANS NetWars offers a suite of six advanced ranges suitable for all skill levels, with a compelling storyline for interactive learning. The multifaceted, real-world challenges emphasize the in-depth practical application and evaluation of essential cybersecurity skills, empowering practitioners to excel in their field. Explore the focus areas below.

Core - Multidisciplinary

The most comprehensive of the NetWars ranges, this ultimate multi-disciplinary cyber range powers up the most diverse cyber skills in a collaborative environment.

Cyber Defense

Focused on preventing, analyzing, and defending against complex real-world attack scenarios, including brute-force attacks and ransomware campaigns.

DFIR

Focused on digital forensics, incident response, threat hunting, and malware analysis, this tool-agnostic approach covers everything from low-level artifacts to high-level behavioral observations.

GRID

Focused on the technologies used in electrical generation and distribution systems, the challenges are themed around power system scenarios, protocols, and architectures.

Healthcare

Focused on securing medical technology, the challenges include device vulnerability scanning, web application assessments, and responding to ransomware threats.

ICS

Focused on factory machinery operations, this experience brings players onto the factory floor, exposing them to the challenges of detecting and defending physical equipment and manufacturing components from cyberattacks.

Self-Paced, Hands-On Training Anytime and Anywhere

SANS Cyber Ranges offers two hands-on training solutions designed with challenges and hints that support continuous knowledge and skill development for you or your team. Learn more about what program fits your needs.

NetWars Tournament

Experience NetWars in a competitive environment with NetWars Tournament, a 6-hour hands-on practice competition.

NetWars Ranges Available: Core, Cyber Defense, DFIR, GRID, ICS, and Healthcare.
Enhance Team Readiness: Help your team develop coordinated response capabilities, allowing them to practice their skills and prepare before facing real threats.
Practice After a SANS Class: Participate in a tournament for free when you enroll in a 4 to 6-day paid course at selected SANS Training events.
Compete With Global Peers: The winning team and the top five solo players from every Core NetWars Tournament throughout the year will compete head-to-head for their chance to claim victory in the annual SANS NetWars Tournament of Champions.

Request a Custom Tournament Play in a SANS Training Event

Reading Room

Blog

Core NetWars Version 11

After a long trek through simulated threats and digital dust, SANS students now find themselves in Rust Haven, a neon-lit outpost deep in the…

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Blog

SANS Skills Quest by NetWars

Cyber threats evolve daily, and the best way to keep up is through regular, hands-on training—but who has time for...

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Success Story

Polish Energy Grid Cyber Exercise

Certainly, a major attack with a large geopolitical tension will be multi-vector. It strikes not only in the Polish power infrastructure but also…

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Webcast

Cyber Ranges Behind the Scenes

Listen from our event operations team, how cyber ranges come together, and find out about special events like the SANS Tournament of Champions and…

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Blog

Core NetWars Version 10

You and your classmates are having fun at a local arcade when suddenly, everyone gets pulled into a complex digital world ruled by...

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What Global Security Practitioners are Saying About SANS Cyber Ranges

For anyone that hasn’t taken part in NetWars before, I can tell you that it's brilliant and lots of fun.

Umar Javed

CEO - CyDefOps

NetWars is challenging for all levels of expertise, has great hints if you get stuck, and promotes continuous education.

Jon-Michael Lacek

- Wegmans Food Markets

These challenges were so much fun. Really covered so many different topics. Love how you were forced to use tshark and MySQL. Made you have to learn or relearn topic again.

C. Moody

Every point is a team success no matter who cracks the answer and gets the point(s). Have fun, connect with others and if you win that’s an added extra.

Umar Javed

CEO - CyDefOps

Having participated in NetWars Continuous and in the NetWars Tournament, I can honestly say that they were the most intellectually challenging and enjoyable tests of technical skills in which I have participated.

Kees Leune

- Adelphi University

The gamified environment made it fun and the hints were a welcome feature that really helped make progress in a limited time frame

Adam B.

Don’t focus too much on getting to the top, enjoy the experience, if you team up you can learn so much from others and it definitely helps to divide and conquer based on your skills and experience.

Umar Javed

CEO - CyDefOps

Core NetWars was challenging but not frustrating for newbies. This is my first time doing NetWars and it has been a blast.

Rachael Murray

- Northwestern Mutual

Fun challenges that really pushed you to think and adapt to overcome a variety of interesting scenarios

William L.

The increased difficulty and challenge levels as you moved through the questions encouraged you to keep going and build on the skills being practices

Dan C.

This Mini-Netwars has been a great educational experience for me in learning different ways to accomplish tasks. For my learning level, this has been challenging and rewarding

Ricardo V.

I’m a defender, so knowing how attackers attack is useful. One of the most dangerous attacks in this exercise was flashing firmware on a device that wasn’t properly secured.

Annah W.

[Cyber STX] provided our team the most realistic training environment we have encountered... We hope other CPTs get to experience this

Maj. Marty

Learning new things, thinking from new angles and the topics make it an excellent experience for me

JP S.

I love how I am able to both sharpen old skills and learn new skills and tools to add to my arsenal... from the use of various famous tools to the writing of simple to complex bash calls and scripts for those tools

Jessica V.

I love taking part in the NetWars. There is such a range of challenges to complete... I had no idea you could over write C functions in binaries as simply as setting an environment variable

Oliver T.