About the Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) category
What belongs in this category
The Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) category covers products that assess an organization's identity environment continuously, the way an attacker would, before an attack happens. Typical entries connect to directories, identity providers, cloud and SaaS platforms, find misconfigured settings, accounts without multi-factor authentication (MFA), dormant and orphaned accounts, excess permissions and paths an attacker could follow to sensitive access, and guide or automate the fix.
ISPM is about prevention. Detecting and responding to attacks on identities as they happen fits Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), and a product that covers prevention and response can enter both. Access requests, reviews and the identity lifecycle belong in Identity Governance and Administration (IGA).
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 identity environments the product assesses: identities and systems covered, directories and cloud platforms connected, demanding or regulated customers.
- Innovation — an identity weakness found or fixed in a new way, such as mapping attack paths across directories and clouds, ranking risks by what an attacker could reach, or fixing issues automatically without breaking access.
- Impact — results for customers: risky settings fixed, dormant accounts removed, accounts brought under MFA, attack paths to sensitive access closed. Give before-and-after figures.
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.
