About the Chief Information Security Officer of the Year (CISO) category
Who this award is for
This award is for the person who owns security for an organization: the CISO, or the executive who holds that responsibility under another title, such as chief security officer, head of information security or VP of security.
The award recognizes leadership of a security program and what it achieved. CISOs whose role reaches across the wider executive team can enter Cybersecurity Executive of the Year as well, which is also the category for field CISOs at security vendors. A chief executive fits Chief Executive Officer of the Year (CEO), and a technology leader whose remit goes well beyond security fits Chief Technology Officer of the Year (CTO). If you offer virtual or fractional CISO services, enter the service in Virtual CISO.
Related categories to enter
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a nominee in every category that fits their work, with a separate nomination for each. Tailor each nomination to that category's focus. Entering several related categories gives the work more than one chance to be recognized.
How entries are judged
An independent jury of security practitioners, analysts and CISOs scores each nomination on leadership, innovation and impact. Each nomination competes in its category against peers in a similar setting and region. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
- Leadership — the scope and stakes of the program: how large and complex the organization it protects is, how the nominee represents security to the board, and how they built and kept their team.
- Innovation — a security problem approached differently, such as a new operating model, a way of securing the organization's use of AI, or a program change others could learn from.
- Impact — what changed under the nominee's leadership: risk reduced, incidents contained, audits passed, maturity improved against a framework such as NIST CSF. Figures and named outcomes carry more weight than adjectives.
The jury awards Gold, Silver or Bronze, or a Finalist badge, and results are published on this site and announced to the 600,000+ member Cybersecurity Insiders community. Every approved nomination also enters the separate Community Choice award, decided by public votes.
How to enter
Anyone can submit a nomination: the nominee, a colleague or manager, the organization, or an agency entering a client. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as internal figures, customer names or incident details. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.
