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SANS Institute calls on Manchester security pros
Manchester will play host to a week-long cyber security training event during February
Cyber security training and certification organisation the SANS Institute will set up shop in Manchester between 24 and 29 February 2020 for the first SANS Manchester event, with multiple immersion-style security skills training tracks taking place during the week.
The private, for-profit body, which was founded in 1989 as a cooperative dedicated to information security research and education, already has a presence in over 90 cities around the world, and this year is focusing on extending its training events into more regional cities across Europe – it ran a similar event in Cardiff towards the end of 2019.
“In the UK, this means extending SANS training events outside of London, where we already run at least 10-track training events on a monthly basis, to other key, digitally focused cities in the UK,” said Stephen Jones, the SANS Institute’s UK and Nordics managing director.
“In order to provide world-class training to Manchester’s information security practitioners, SANS is delighted to be running our first training event in Manchester for the first time in February. This will offer five week-long courses and provide the best in-depth technical cyber security training available from world-leading cyber security experts.”
With Manchester placed in the top 20 in Nesta’s European Digital City Index for startups and scaleups, and the recent establishment of a new GCHQ centre in the city – which is already tapping into startup talent in north-west England – the SANS Institute believes Manchester is emerging as one of the best locations in the world for developing and harnessing security technology.
“Manchester was an obvious next choice because of its status as a top 20 European Digital City and rapid growth as a tech and cyber security hub,” said Jones. “This includes the new GCHQ centre there and the very recent announcement that the GCHQ Accelerator will offer 11 companies in the area, which all create products to improve citizen safety in a digitally connected world, support and mentoring from its tech experts.”
Each SANS live training event can be attended by about 300 people. Besides offering in-depth technical training on cutting-edge security techniques, it also offers networking opportunities and evening events, including NetWars – a series of hands-on, interactive learning scenarios that play out as competitive war game exercises, letting delegates test their skills against peers.
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The SANS Institute will offer five different training courses over the week-long event. These are SEC401: Security Essentials Bootcamp Style; SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling; SEC545: Cloud Security Architecture and Operations; SEC555: SIEM with Tactical Analytics; and SEC560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking.
The courses prepare trainees for the industry-recognised GIAC cyber security certification by helping them to develop the hands-on cyber security skills that will prove most useful in preventing cyber attacks.
