Boss of the SOC (BOTS) Dataset Version 3 vs Synthetic Adversarial Log Objects (SALO): Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Boss of the SOC (BOTS) Dataset Version 3

Security teams building internal training programs or running capture-the-flag competitions need Boss of the SOC (BOTS) Dataset Version 3 because it's free, pre-indexed in Splunk, and lets analysts practice on real attack scenarios without licensing friction. The dataset powers thousands of hands-on labs across universities and corporate SOCs; 363 GitHub stars undersells its adoption, but the price point is the real differentiator. Skip this if your team needs guided instruction or if you're not already comfortable running Splunk; BOTS is raw material for people who know what they're doing with it.