SANS and KPMG Open Nominations for the Ken Johnson DFIR Scholarship

Bethesda, Md. – SANS Institute, the global leader in information security training, is seeking nominations for the Ken Johnson Digital Forensic and Incident Response (DFIR) Scholarship. The objective of the Ken Johnson Scholarship is to foster DFIR professional development and to encourage and mentor a dedicated student showing genuine promise in the DFIR field.

"Ken was an amazing husband and father. His love for his family was his driving force behind all of his accomplishments and successes. His passion for digital forensics led him to self-study Windows 8 internals and publish leading research on the topic. Relatively unknown in the DFIR community, he presented his findings at the 2012 SANS DFIR Summit which led to his subsequent employment with KPMG LLP," said Rob Lee, Faculty Fellow and DFIR Curriculum Lead, SANS Institute.

"Over time, Ken's network expanded to the greater DFIR community, where he enjoyed sharing and receiving knowledge among the industry. He attended and spoke at many conferences and helped organize BSides Iowa at Iowa State. The Ken Johnson DFIR Scholarship was created in 2016 by the SANS Institute and KPMG LLP to honor Ken's legacy," said David Nides, Managing Director, KPMG Cyber Security Services.

Undergraduate (junior or senior year) or graduate students enrolled full-time in a degree program at an accredited college or university in the U.S. are eligible to submit. Scholarship submissions must be submitted on or before June 1, 2017.

Scholarship recipients will receive:

  • Two SANS DFIR classes in any format (contributed by SANS and KPMG LLP)
  • One complimentary entry to the SANS DFIR Summit in the year the scholarship is awarded
  • Mentoring from two DFIR coaches (Matt Bromiley and David Nides)
  • Consideration for an internship

For additional details on the Ken Johnson DFIR Scholarship, including submission guidelines, eligibility requirements and application details, please visit: www.sans.org/event/digital-forensics-summit-2017/ken-johnson-scholarship

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.kpmg.com/us), is the independent U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"). KPMG International's independent member firms have 189,000 professionals, including more than 9,000 partners, in 152 countries.

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)