Cybersecurity College Tops Leaderboard with #1 Individual Player and #1 Team
BETHESDA, MD, May 6, 2022 – Students from the SANS Technology Institute (SANS.edu), one of the nation’s largest cybersecurity programs and the only college focused solely on cybersecurity, obliterated the competition at the spring 2022 National Cyber League (NCL) competition, earning top rankings for #1 Individual Player and #1 Team. The college had 113 students participate in the Individual Game and fielded ten SANS.edu Sentinels teams. Four of the SANS.edu teams made the top ten (earning #1, #3, #5, #9 team rankings), and eight teams broke into the top 100 of more than 1,000 teams nationwide.
“I’m exceptionally proud that the number one team included a mix of students from our master’s degree, graduate certificate, and undergraduate certificate programs,” said Ed Skoudis, President of the SANS Technology Institute. “The depth of talent across the college is mind-blowing, and this speaks to both their hard work and the quality of education they’re receiving.”
“I am humbled and honored to have placed first in the individual game,” said Christopher Haller, the top individual scorer, and a member of the winning SANS.edu team. Christopher, who is Director of Professional Services at Centripetal Networks and a student in the SANS Technology Institute’s graduate certificate program in Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking, said, “My favorite part about the NCL competition was working closely with the other students at the school to create remarkable results together.”
The winning SANS.edu Sentinels team members were Christopher Haller, Anthony Snead, Jacob Elliot, David Wolfe, Andrew Phillips, William Rotchford, and Brian Davidson.
“They worked extraordinarily hard, and it paid off,” said John Hally, Principal Security Architect at NetScout and a graduate of the SANS.edu master’s degree program, who coached the SANS.edu teams. “As a SANS.edu alumnus, I couldn’t be prouder.”
About the National Cyber League
The National Cyber League (NCL) is a collegiate cybersecurity competition that enables students to prepare for and test themselves against practical cybersecurity challenges that they will likely face in the workforce, such as identifying hackers from forensic data, penetration testing and auditing vulnerable websites, and recovering from ransomware attacks. Open to U.S. high school and college students, the NCL is a community and virtual training ground that allow students to develop and demonstrate their technical cybersecurity skills, helping students bridge the gap from curriculum to career.
About SANS Technology Institute
Founded in 2005, SANS Technology Institute is the independent, regionally-accredited, VA-approved subsidiary of SANS Institute, the world's largest and most trusted provider of cybersecurity training, certification, and research. Offering undergraduate and graduate programs at the cutting edge of cybersecurity, SANS.edu is strengthening the cyber workforce through a career-focused curriculum built on proven SANS courses and industry-recognized GIAC certifications.
SANS.edu master’s degree students conduct leading-edge cybersecurity research that enhances the state of the art in the practice of information security. The college is also home to the Internet Storm Center, the world’s leading global cyber threat detection network, where students in the bachelor’s degree program gain hands-on experience as Apprentice Handlers.
The SANS Technology Institute is accredited by The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (1007 North Orange Street, 4th Floor, MB #166, Wilmington, DE 19801 - 267.284.5000), an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.