About the Cybersecurity Assessment category
What belongs in this category
The Cybersecurity Assessment category covers products and services that evaluate an organization's security at a point in time and tell it what to do next. Typical entries include risk assessments, maturity assessments against a framework, gap analyses before a certification, security audits, and assessment platforms that guide an organization or its advisers through the questions, score the answers and produce a plan.
Ongoing, automated testing of controls fits Continuous Controls Monitoring. Penetration testing sold as an ongoing subscription fits Pentest-as-a-Service (PtaaS); penetration tests and red team engagements delivered as one-off projects belong here. Assessing suppliers rather than the organization itself fits Third Party Risk Management (TPRM), and firms that provide compliance assessments can also enter Cybersecurity Compliance Service Provider of the Year.
Related categories to enter
Each category is judged separately, so you can enter a product in every category that matches what it does, with a separate nomination for each. Tailor each nomination to that category's focus. Entering several related categories gives the product 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 organizations of similar size and region, so a mid-sized firm is not ranked against a global enterprise. Your entry package, any sponsorship and public votes do not affect the jury's scores.
Strong entries in this category show:
- Leadership — the assessments delivered: organizations assessed, frameworks covered, sectors served, and clients who return for the next assessment.
- Innovation — an assessment problem solved in a new way, such as faster assessments without losing depth, results compared with peers, or plans that turn findings into funded projects.
- Impact — results for clients: gaps found and closed, certifications achieved after the assessment, risk reduced between assessments. Give figures from clients.
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
A vendor can enter its own product or service, and a PR agency can enter it on a client's behalf. The nomination form has a confidential field for detail that is shared with the judges and not published, such as customer names, deployment figures or roadmap. Deadlines, pricing and entry steps are on the How it Works page.
