How the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards Work
2027 nominations are open. Now in its second decade, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards recognize the companies, products, and professionals shaping the future of cybersecurity. Presented by Cybersecurity Insiders and backed by a community of 600,000+ security practitioners, the program has honored 500+ winners across more than 100+ categories since its inception. Past winners include industry leaders like Zscaler, Fortinet, and Palo Alto Networks alongside hundreds of fast-growing innovators across every segment of the market.
Organizations, products, and professionals across every segment of cybersecurity are eligible to participate worldwide. Both self-nominations and nominations on behalf of others are welcome. Whether you’re showcasing a breakthrough product, highlighting your organization’s security leadership, or honoring the professionals driving real impact, you’ll find a category that fits.
2027 Awards Timeline
The awards season spans two major industry moments:
- Now: Nominations are open
- Nomination Deadline for Jury Awards — February 27, 2027
- Jury Award Winners Announced — Starting the week of March 22, 2027 (ahead of RSA Conference in San Francisco)
- Community Choice Voting — Open from the moment of nomination acceptance through early July 2027
- Community Choice Winners Announced — Mid-July 2027 (ahead of Black Hat in Las Vegas)
Enter early. Nominations submitted in the first months of the season have the longest voting window for Community Choice.
Start your nomination · See packages and fees
How to Enter: Four steps from nomination to recognition
1. Choose your category. Select the category that best fits the achievement you want recognized. Pick from four award groups: Products & Services, Companies, Professionals & Teams, and Industry Solutions. More than 100 categories cover every major segment. If nothing fits, contact us and we can discuss a new category.
2. Submit your nomination. Tell the jury what you achieved in that category, with specifics and evidence: growth numbers, deployment scale, measurable outcomes. A confidential field lets you share supporting detail with judges that won’t be published.
3. Activate and go live. Pay the nomination fee at checkout, or pay in advance for one nomination or a package. Once approved, your nomination receives a public profile page in the awards directory. Public Community Choice voting for your nomination starts at the same moment.
4. Get recognized. Winners receive an official badge with a perpetual worldwide license and a winner toolkit for press and social promotion.
How Winners Are Selected
The awards program recognizes excellence through two independent tracks, each with its own evaluation method and announcement timeline.
Jury Awards — Announced in March before RSA Conference. All nomination category entries are evaluated independently by our panel of independent expert judges using structured, merit-based criteria. Entries are judged within peer groups by company size, geography, and category, ensuring that winners are measured against true peers rather than the entire market. This segmented approach means recognition reflects genuine leadership within your competitive context. Package selection and public votes do not influence jury decisions.
Community Choice Award — Announced in July before Black Hat. The Community Choice Awards is the one category decided entirely by the cybersecurity community. Every approved nomination automatically enters this separate, public-voting competition the moment a nomination is accepted. Each completed social share through the nomination profile page counts as one vote. This gives all nominees a direct way to rally their networks and demonstrate market support. Voting remains open through early July, giving every nominee a meaningful window to build community support before winners with the highest vote count in their category are announced ahead of Black Hat in Las Vegas.
The two tracks measure different dimensions of excellence. Jury awards reflect expert evaluation of innovation, impact, and merit. Community Choice Awards reflects the breadth of peer support and market engagement a nomination can generate.
A nomination can receive recognition from both the jury and the community.
Entering early maximizes your Community Choice voting window. Nominees who submit in January or February accumulate months of social engagement before voting closes — a meaningful advantage that rewards early action. Late nominees benefit too: jury evaluation considers every nomination on its merits regardless of entry date, and the Community Choice voting window extends well beyond the jury announcement, giving every nominee real runway to build community support.
What Recognition Delivers
For over a decade, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards have served as an independent benchmark for buyers, analysts, and investors evaluating cybersecurity leadership. Recognition as a finalist or winner carries weight well beyond the award itself — it signals to the market that your solution, team, or leadership stands among the best in the industry.
Winners have been featured in Dark Reading, SC Magazine, and Forbes, and regularly leverage their status in press releases, analyst briefings, investor decks, sales conversations, RFP responses, and at global industry events including RSA Conference and Black Hat.
Every nomination includes a dedicated profile page in our searchable awards directory with logo, product images, and website links to strengthen SEO presence. Social promotion across LinkedIn, X, and Facebook amplifies each nomination to a high-value cybersecurity audience.
Winners receive an official award badge with a perpetual, worldwide license for use across websites, sales decks, marketing campaigns, and regional offices globally. A certificate is available on request (no charge), and winners can order a trophy, which is charged separately. A winner toolkit with press release templates, social media assets, and promotional best practices helps nominees make the most of their recognition.
Winners in Action
Award recognition translates directly into market visibility. Here’s how recent winners have put their awards to work:
- Fortra — Announced Best Cybersecurity Company win via BusinessWire [Read Press Release]
- Zimperium — Leveraged triple win in Mobile Security for investor communications [Read Press Release]
- Lattice Semiconductor — Promoted multiple wins across Embedded Security and Network Security categories [Read Press Release]
- TekStream — Highlighted Team of the Year recognition in recruiting materials [Read Press Release]
Nomination Packages
If you plan multiple nominations, a package costs less for each nomination. The Plus and Pro packages also add regular announcements of your nominations on our social media channels during the season, and the Pro package features one nomination of your choice on our homepage. A package does not change how the judges review a nomination. You find all fees and packages on the Fees page.
Award Newsletter
Subscribe to our Cybersecurity Excellence Awards newsletter to stay informed on deadlines, winner announcements, and recognition opportunities throughout the awards season.
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional details, see the FAQs below. If you have questions or feedback, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards team is here to help.