Information Security Award Finalists Revealed

Specialist cyber security businesses, a big bank and experts from across the public and private sectors have been named among 18 finalists in this year's iSANZ Awards.

The annual iSANZ Awards were established seven years ago to recognise the achievements of New Zealand people and organisations in the cybersecurity and information security (InfoSec) field.

iSANZ Chair Kendra Ross says the iSANZ Board was inundated with a record number of high quality entries this year, including in a new category IT Security Leader of the Year.

Three finalists have now been selected in each category. From a total of 57 entries, the independent Awards judges have recognised the following finalists:

Best Security Project or Security Awareness Initiative:
Education Arcade for its interactive, story-driven cyber security games and content; BNZ for its sustained cyber security awareness campaign targeting staff, customers and partners; GCSB for development of its baseline security templates.

Best New Zealand Security Service or Product:
DarkScope for its CIQ360 cyber risk insurance rating service; SafeStack Academy for its online cyber security and privacy awareness education platform; SafeToOpen for its anti phishing verification tool.

Best Security Company of the Year:
ZX Security, SafeStack Academy, MindShift.

Best Startup or New Business:
Datamasque, MindShift, Onwardly.

Best Security Professional CISO, Security Manager, Leader:
Josh Bahlman, CISO Spark; Hilary Walton, CISO Kordia; Richard Harrison, CISO HealthAlliance.

Up-and-coming Cybersecurity Star:

Anna Thomson, Casey Cooper, Ankita Dhakar.

“We’re strongly encouraged to have received entries from across the public and private sectors, as well as from the InfoSec community itself. The breadth and depth of the work being done by our 2021 entrants was incredible and our judges found their job challenging. The quality of entrants this year is proof that our cyber security ecosystem is in fine shape.”

Kendra says the technology landscape has changed beyond recognition in recent years and good information security practice is now more important than ever.

“The contributions of New Zealand individuals and organisations in helping secure individuals and organisations against escalating cyber threats is immeasurable. Feedback from our local and international judges is that it’s clear this country possesses InfoSec capability the equal of anywhere in the world.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, there will be a delay of some months before the winners will be announced.

Originally set down for this month, a gala awards dinner at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington is now scheduled for February 2022. It’s hoped by this time that the country will have achieved its vaccination targets and that regional travel restrictions and restrictions on event and hospitality gathering will have been relaxed.

Next February’s gala awards evening will also see a person, event or organisation crowned in a special nominated Hall of Fame category.

The 2021 iSANZ Awards are proudly sponsored by Datacom, Quantum Security, McAfee, Spark NZ, Kordia, SailPoint, Check Point, NEXTGEN Group and CyberCX. Supporting partners are Duo, NZITF, Duo Services, SiteHost and 1st Tuesday.

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