Celebrate 10 Years of Boss of the SOC at .conf25

Awww yeah. We’re a few months away from Splunk .conf25! This year’s event is taking place in Boston, from September 8–11. Since 2015, the security strategist team has debuted a new version of the Boss of the SOC (BOTS) competition at this event, and this year is no different! We are proud to celebrate a decade of BOTS with BOTS10 — an evening of unique experiences and surprises.

What’s the Scenario?

The Frothly team has added a hot dog food truck to their growing brewery business, and that only makes competitors and adversaries want to work harder to threaten their cybersecurity. A situation with the notorious Angry Alpaca group is brewing. Do you have what it takes to stop them in their tracks?

Use Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security with SOAR pairing, Attack Analyzer (and a few other surprises!) to beat the bad guys. True to form, we’ll also have our infamous easter egg questions where anything goes. Start practicing now and get your investigative muscles ready for the task at hand!

To participate, register for .conf25 and look for the BOTS link in your confirmation email.

What is BOTS?

BOTS is a blue-team, jeopardy-style, capture-the-flag-esque (CTF) competition where participants leverage Splunk security products to answer questions about real-world incidents that security analysts face daily. This event uniquely exemplifies the trials of a security analyst facing an adversary at all stages of a cybsecurity incident. The questions require competitors to understand both Splunk and open source intelligence (OSINT) in order to think outside the box and come out on top.

Should I Participate in BOTS?

Yes! If you've gotten this far, you are most certainly an excellent fit for BOTS. If you know a little about Splunk security solutions and general cybersecurity, this exciting activity is for you. Don’t forget to bring your desire to learn something new and have fun. BOTS is a team sport, so bring your crew along for the ride!

You’ll face questions of all levels of toughness. Each one comes with hints. Fear not — coaches are onsite to assist if necessary.

How Can I Prepare?

• Register for .conf25, then sign up for BOTS using the link in your confirmation email.
• Bring a laptop computer equipped with WiFi and a supported web browser.
• Review previous BOTS events, workshops, and other security focused content.
• Check out the “Hunting with Splunk” blog series. Mastering these topics will help you answer BOTS questions faster.
• Take our free training.

Have questions? Please reach out to bots@splunk.com . We can’t wait to see you there!