About the Defensive Cyberspace Operations Team of the Year category
Who this award is for
This award is for teams whose mission is defending networks that matter to national security. A recent nominee is a defense contractor's team that runs defensive operations for government and defense customers across hundreds of sites.
Details of the mission often cannot be public. Describe the work in general terms and put what you are able to share in the confidential field. Teams whose work is mainly monitoring and response can also enter SOC Team of the Year, which is also the category for security operations teams at commercial organizations.
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 mission the team supports, the networks it defends and how it coordinates with commanders, agencies or clients.
- Innovation — new defensive methods, for example deception technology, automated response, defense of industrial systems or use of AI in operations.
- Impact — mission results you can share: threats found and removed, response times, availability of critical services, exercises and inspections passed. General figures are fine where specifics are restricted.
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.
