Bethesda, Md. – SANS Institute, the global leader in information security training, today announced that the call for nominations for the SANS 2017 Difference Makers Awards is now open. Individuals, teams and groups from within the SANS community are invited to submit a nomination detailing their successful implementation of security processes or technology in 2017 that resulted in meaningful and measurable advances in security.
According to John Pescatore, SANS Director of Emerging Security Trends, "SANS is proud to help recognize the unsung heroes of cyber security. Previous winners ranged from middle and high school teachers of STEM programs, to the Hack the Pentagon team, to SOC analysts, community college lab managers, and military personnel."
The SANS Difference Makers Awards were created to honor security professionals that are quietly succeeding and making breakthroughs in advancing security. The goal is to raise awareness of what works so that others can achieve similar cyber security success.
Submissions are due October 20, 2017. Nominations will be evaluated by a team from SANS, security industry analysts and thought leaders. Awards categories include:
- Enhancing the Security Workforce
- Implementing the Critical Security Controls
- Meaningful Security Metrics
- Mitigating Advanced Threats
- SANS Security Awareness
- Vertical Industry Difference Makers: ICS, Healthcare, Government, etc.
Winners of SANS' fifth annual People Who Made a Difference in Security award program will be honored at the SANS Cyber Defense Initiative training event in Washington D.C. in December. For additional details on the SANS Difference Makers Awards, including the nomination criteria and how to submit nominations, please visit: www.sans.org/cyber-innovation-awards
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)