About the Security Program Optimization Leader of the Year category
Who this award is for
This award is for people who keep making a security program run better. Recent nominees include a network security specialist who runs a continuing program to simplify firewall rules at a utility and a technical leader who moved security checks onto one shared pipeline for many development teams.
Show the before and after: give the starting point, then the result. If the improvement was delivered as one defined initiative, add Cybersecurity Project of the Year. If it sits in a risk and compliance function, add Best Risk and Compliance Program.
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 — how the nominee got people to change the way they work: the teams involved, the routines they introduced and how they made the gains last.
- Innovation — the method behind the improvement, such as automation, fewer tools, simpler rules and policies or a new way of measuring.
- Impact — the measured difference: hours saved, costs cut, errors and rework reduced, audit findings closed, no outages during the change. Add evidence that the gain has held.
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.
