Secure Your Fortress: Building Robust and Resilient Defenses for 2025

John redefined modern SOC operations by engineering globally adopted blue team strategies and co-creating the GSOC cert. Through the Blueprint podcast and SANS leadership, he’s unified thousands of defenders around real-world detection tactics.

David Hoelzer has fundamentally advanced cybersecurity by pioneering the GIAC Security Expert (GSE) certification, leading AI-driven threat detection initiatives, and developing MAVIS, an open-source ML tool enhancing code review processes.

SANS Certified Instructor Candidate Sean Thomas has worked in higher education for 25 years, including as a Senior Information Security Analyst for the past decade with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where he was part of the team that created the university’s cybersecurity program.

Bryan Simon, a SANS Senior Instructor and author of SEC401, has been involved in cybersecurity since 1991. He’s the president of Xploit Security Inc., and has taught cybersecurity students from organizations like the FBI, NATO, and UN.

Jeff Lomas works as a Detective and Digital Forensic Examiner at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Jeff has digital forensic experience and training with Mac, iOS Windows, and Android operating systems. As a SANS Instructor, Jeff teaches SEC497: Practical Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT).

Dave Shackleford, founder of Voodoo Security, has advanced cybersecurity through his leadership roles, including serving as CTO for the Center for Internet Security, where he coordinated the first published virtualization security benchmarks.