SANS Institute announces first NetWars International Services Cup in 2021

Bethesda, Md. – On March 17 & 18, 2021, SANS Institute will host the first edition of the NetWars International Services Cup. After five years of hosting the NetWars Services Cup in the United States, SANS is looking to expand this prestigious tournament to an international field of military services. The inaugural event will host members of the FVEY military branches, allowing teams from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to compete in this extraordinary multi-disciplined cyber range event.

James Yacone, SANS Chief of Mission, explains why SANS has chosen to expand the existing SANS Services Cup to an International Services Cup. “SANS has been hosting the US Services Cup for over 5 years and we’ve seen a tremendous increase in participating teams across all military services. 2020 marked a year where the world pivoted rapidly to an online society and the need for international collaboration was amplified. SANS recognized the need to build on our community obligation to create a safer global community by providing fun and engaging cyber range events to build esprit de corps among the military across the world.”

The International Services Cup is a means to achieve two things primarily. On the one hand, it allows various governments build their skills by challenging each other to help make cyber space safer and more secure. Additionally, SANS wants to facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration between the FVEY partners.

SANS does intend to expand the International Services Cup to other nations beyond 2021. Yacone says: “Our plan is to open up the International Services Cup to more nations and international military services from 2022 onwards.”

More information about the International Services Cup can be found here.

About SANS Institute

The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. Today, SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of cyber security training and certification to professionals in government and commercial institutions world-wide. Renowned SANS instructors teach more than 60 courses at in-person and virtual cyber security training events and on demand. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates practitioner skills through more than 35 hands-on, technical certifications in cyber security. The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers a master’s degree, graduate certificates, and an undergraduate certificate in cyber security. SANS Security Awareness, a division of SANS, provides organizations with a complete and comprehensive security awareness solution, enabling them to easily and effectively manage their ‘human’ cybersecurity risk. SANS also delivers a wide variety of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, webcasts, podcasts, 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 support and educate the global information security community. (https://www.sans.org)