SAN FRANCISCO – June 11, 2019 – Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), delivering actions and outcomes from the world of data, today announced the first annual North American Splunk Boss of the SOC (BOTS), a one-day, 10-city competition, on June 19. A longtime favorite event of the security community, Splunk BOTS is a Jeopardy-style, capture-the-flag-esque competition in which participants use Splunk® solutions — and other technologies —to answer a variety of questions about realistic enterprise environment security incidents.

As organizations around the world face increasingly sophisticated attacks from nation-states, rogue hacking groups and elite hacking organizations, security analysts must leverage tools that can monitor, detect and act on data at machine speed. Splunk BOTS is designed to recreate the life of a security analyst tracking down an adversary through all stages of an attack.

Splunk BOTS is a hands-on, immersive team-led exercise that uses the power of data to defeat threats. Initially introduced at .conf16, Splunk’s annual user conference, Splunk BOTS trains customers how to leverage their data effectively and confidently through exposure to new data sources, mature software usage and introduction to Splunk Enterprise Security. Participants in the competition gain real-time training in a variety of skills essential to the modern-day Security Operations Center (SOC), including security monitoring, incident investigation and advanced threat detection. Splunk BOTS is not only for the seasoned Splunk security professional, but also for curious security analysts who want to network and gain continuous security training while learning in a stress-free, easy-to-use environment.

“As the world’s pizza delivery leader with an emphasis on technology innovation, Splunk’s National Boss of the SOC event is a great opportunity to bring our security team together in a fun and competitive environment,” said Mike Cox, Domino’s Splunk Architect. “BOTS gives organizations an opportunity to meet other security experts from different industries and share best practices, which is critical as the community works together against emerging cybercrime. Plus, winning the first BOTS event we participated in was unforgettable.”

The event takes place across 10 North American cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Irvine, New York City, San Jose, Seattle, Toronto and Washington, D.C. Winners of the city and national BOTS competitions will be invited to .conf19, the 10th Annual Splunk Users Conference, on October 21-24 in Las Vegas to compete in the largest on-site BOTS event. To register and compete in a city near you, visit the Splunk website.