Offensive Operations Certifications

GIAC's offensive operations certifications cover critical domains and highly specialized usages, ensuring professionals are well-versed in essential offensive abilities. GIAC certifications prove that you have knowledge and skills necessary to work across specialized red, purple, and exploit development teams.

Red Team Operations Certifications

Prove your ability to detect, respond to, and recover from an attack.

Purple Team Certifications

Improve the "red-blue" feedback loop by certifying in cross-focus areas.

"My GIAC penetration testing certification is important to me because just knowing or being able to read a vulnerability management tool report isn't good enough. Being able to and knowing how to exploit a vulnerability not only looks good for you, but the impact it has on the business is extremely valuable. Knowing you're helping your company stay more secure is its own reward." - Nick Villa, GPEN

  • Students can add a GIAC Certification exam attempt to their SANS course purchase either during the registration process, or through their SANS Account dashboard up until thirty days after the completion of their in-person, Simulcast, or Live Online course. For OnDemand orders, students have until ninety days after the registration date to add the GIAC Certification exam attempt bundle.

    The deadline to complete the GIAC Certification exam attempt is four months from the completion of the in-person, Simulcast, or Live Online course. For OnDemand orders, the deadline to complete the GIAC Certification exam attempt is the same as the online training deadline.

    To add a GIAC Certification exam attempt bundle after registering:

    1. Log in to your SANS Account and click the "My Orders" link in your dashboard
    2. Select "Add Available Bundled Items to Your Order" and submit your payment information to complete your purchase
  • For OnDemand orders, you will receive access to the training and exam when you manually start the course from your account, or automatically within 14 days of payment. For in-person or LiveOnline training, you will receive access to the exam 7-10 days after the conclusion of your training event.

  • The option to add the GIAC exam is available when you register for the associated SANS training course. Check out the list of SANS courses to get started.