CYBER SKILLS, CREATIVITY ON DISPLAY AS SANS INSTITUTE NAMES THE WINNERS OF ITS ANNUAL HOLIDAY HACK CHALLENGE


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BETHESDA, Md., Feb. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — SANS Institute (SANS) today announced the winners of the SANS 2021 Holiday Hack Challenge as part of its closing ceremonies, delivered via webcast. In addition to the winners’ announcement, the virtual event featured a behind-the-scenes look at this year’s challenge as well as a peek into next year’s challenge, already in development.

The annual SANS Holiday Hack Challenge is a free, online cybersecurity game in which players of all skill levels and ages from across the globe tackle hands-on cyber challenges. The 2021 challenge was held from December 2021 through January 2022.

As announced today, the winners are:

  • Grand Prize Winner: Thomas Bouve
    (who in 2020 won Best Technical Answer)
  • Most Creative Answer: Jai Minton
    (who created a 3D video game based on the Holiday Hack Challenge itself)
  • Runner-Up Most Creative Answer: Joel Tan
  • Best Technical Answer: David Forsythe
  • Runner-Up Best Technical Answer: Roger Johnsen

The Holiday Hack Challenge is SANS’ gift to the community, and prizes awarded at the end of the competition to the winners included cybersecurity goodies such as four-month subscriptions to the NetWars Continuous 2 cyber range, and a SANS online training course, which was awarded to the Grand Prize Winner, Thomas Bouve.

More than 15,000 players took part in the most festive cyber security challenge and virtual conference of the year. All ages and skill levels were eligible to play in this series of high-quality cybersecurity challenges, ranging from beginner to serious expert, from elementary students to cybersecurity professionals. The whimsical and spirited challenges were all designed to be a playful way to help players build critical cyber security skills to make the world a safer, more secure place. To help players develop Log4j analysis skills, the critical vulnerability that surfaced in December, the Holiday Hack Challenge included two bonus challenges: one red, one blue.

“The annual SANS Holiday Hack Challenge…

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