SANS Institute, founded in 1989, is a provider of cybersecurity training, certifications and information security research. The organisation describes itself as the world's largest and most trusted source for cybersecurity training, certifications and research, and operates globally. It was established as a cooperative for information security thought leadership.
Its core offering consists of more than 85 practitioner-created and practitioner-delivered courses covering information security, taught in classrooms and online and designed around skills that can be applied immediately. These are accompanied by over 1,700 hands-on labs intended to build practical familiarity rather than theory alone. The institute also awards cybersecurity certifications for practitioners and maintains an active research programme in information security.
Faculty members are active cybersecurity practitioners, and their output extends beyond teaching: they have collectively created more than 150 open-source security tools and authored over 40 books on information security. Technical work spans cyber defense, open-source security tooling and hands-on security labs.
The institute describes its approach as community-driven, with courses built by people working on the front lines of cyber defence, and reports that bonds formed between instructors and students persist through a global network of professionals who support one another after training ends. Stated core values are integrity, trust, honesty and flexibility.
