SANS Virginia Beach 2026 - SANS@Night Talk: Twelve Against Thousands: The Special Forces Playbook for Outnumbered Security Teams

Most security teams I’ve worked with and helped have a handful of people defending thousands. Yet we expect them to cover everything, watch everything, and control everything, like they have an army’s headcount to do it.

Special Forces solved this problem seventy years ago. A twelve man ODA does not win by force. It wins by training the local population to fight, by learning the language before the mission, and by operating on intent instead of scripts.

This talk translates that doctrine for defenders. I will share what I have seen and used in the field: building an indigenous force of security champions, killing the jargon that costs you the business, and rewriting policy as commander’s intent. No silver bullets, no promises. Just ideas that have worked for teams with your actual headcount, plus a look at AI as a partner force you train rather than a replacement you trust blindly.