The winners of the fifth annual Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards have been announced.
The awards celebrate the people making a difference within the cybersecurity industry. The winners were announced at a virtual ceremony compèred by Brian Higgins, security specialist at Comparitech and Yvonne Eskenzi, co-founder of Eskenzi PR, and supported by sponsors KnowBe4, Protiviti and Qualys. The judging panel for the awards included representatives from Infosecurity, ISACA, Higgins and Eskenzi.
“It is perhaps more important this year than ever before to honor the cybersecurity professionals who have kept us all up and running during lockdown,” said Yvonne Eskenzi. “The cyber-skills gap is a huge issue for this country and an event like this really shows off what a great industry it is to be a part of and the wonderful people that make it.”
The winners from all categories were:
Security Leader/Mentor
Winner: David Chan – entrepreneur in residence at CyLon
Cyber Writer
Winner: Davey Winder – freelance tech writer
Highly Commended: Raef Meeuwisse – author at Cyber Simplicity
Best Security Awareness Campaign
Winner: Cygenta for CV-19
Apprentice/Rising Star
Winner: Ben Chater – junior security analyst at Pinsent Masons
Highly Commended: Madeline Howard – Cygenta/Cynam
Best Educator
Winner: Toni Scullion – founder of dressCode
Godparent of Security
Winner: Pat Ryan – founder of Cyber Girls First
Best Ethical Hacker / Pen Tester
Winner: James Mullen – senior security consultant at Edgescan
Data Guardian
Winner: Dominic Hartley – DPO at the Department of Works and Pensions
DevSecOps Trailblazer
Winner: Didar Gelici – data privacy and cybersecurity risk professional
Captain Compliance
Winner: Ian Bernhardt – head of governance and compliance at Sprout IT
Security Avengers
Winner: Chani Simms and the SHe CISO Bootcamp Team
CISO Supremo
Winner: Emma Leith – CISO at Santander
COVID Hero
Winner: Lisa Forte – partner of Red Goat Cyber Security