SANS Difference Makers Awards

Celebrates an individual who devotes significant time and energy to fostering talent, increasing inclusion, and uplifting others in the cybersecurity community. Through mentorship, social media presence, or diversity advocacy, this champion actively supports underrepresented voices and helps the entire community thrive. 

• Jay James
• Gaelle Koanda
• Winner – Committee: Tracy Z. Maleeff
• Winner – Community: Dr. Reem Faraj Al-Shammari
• Joan Nwafor

Using unique approaches to succeed through innovation and risk-taking and/or creating an open-source tool of significant value. 

• FirmGuard
• Winner – Committee: NOVA, Thomas Roccia
• RAD Security
• Winner – Community: SecurityReview.ai, Abhay Bhargav and team
• StrikeReady

Newer practitioners contributing in the industry to keep an eye on. 

• Winner – Community: Dr. Anmol Agarwal
• Winner – Committee: Shavvon Cintron
• Krity Kharbanda
• Jen Langdon
• Michelle Washington

Leading practitioner in the Cyber Defense field. 

• Roxanne Davis
• Amit Elazari
• Winner – Community: Anna Pham
• Roberto Rodriguez
• Winner – Committee: Steven Thomson

Leading practitioner in the ICS/OT field. 

• Winner – Community: Mike Holcomb
• Saltanat Mashirova
• Winner – Committee: Jeff Shearer
• Rupesh Shirke
• Jimmy Wylie

Leading practitioner in the Offensive Operations field. 

• Dr. Anmol Agarwal
• Eric Sowah Badger
• Dr. Pat Laverty
• Winner – Community: Tata Derek
• Winner – Committee: Cory Wolff

Leading practitioner in the Digital Forensics and Incident Response field. 

• Dray Agha
• Jai Minton
• Winner – Community: Omkar Nimbalkar
• Anton Ovrutsky

Excellence in media and content that drove thought leadership, innovation, research, or community discussions in the cybersecurity community. 

• Winner – Committee: Dave Bittner - Founder and Host of CyberWire Daily
• Chris Glanden - Host of BarCode podcast
• David Moulton - Host of Threat Vector podcast
• Dr. Nikki Robinson - Author of Mind the Gap
• Dani Woolf - Host of Cooking with CISOs podcast
• Winner – Community: Chris Hughes - Host of Resilient Cyber podcast

Displayed extraordinary leadership skills, dedication to their team and passion for fostering an inclusive, thriving team environment. 

• Winner – Community: Allan Alford
• Andres Andreu
• Chris Betz
• Winner – Committee: Kirsten Davies
• Anne Marie Zettlemoyer

A community-minded company that offers high-quality products and services, demonstrates strong ethical standards, and exhibits exemplary leadership within cybersecurity. 

• Darktrace
• Winner – Community: Huntress
• Pentera
• Seemplicity
• Winner – Committee: XBOW

Transcends categories; has made substantial contributions to cybersecurity over many years. 

• HD Moore
• Melissa Hathaway
• Peiter "Mudge" Zatko
• Community and Committee Winner: Dan Kaminsky
• Coleen Coolidge

This prestigious annual awards program, created by John Pescatore and our late founder Alan Paller, honors individuals and teams in the cyber security community who have made a measurable and significant difference in security. You can read more and view lists of previous winners at the links below.

Anyone can make a nomination! We want to hear from people all around the industry.

Complete all fields on the nomination form. The more detailed and specific your nomination, the better. The nomination should focus on work performed in the past couple years.

No! Nominations are free and open to anyone who wants to share great news about people and projects that deserve to be celebrated by the cybersecurity community.

Yes, and no! People and teams can receive multiple nominations, but it won’t add weight to the selection process.

Two things: The nominations will be summarized, and we’ll post a new survey form for the public to vote for their choice in each category. At the same time, the SANS Advisory Board, made up of a panel of SANS instructors and industry practitioners, will review the nominations and make their selection. There will be two winners in each category – the People’s Choice winner and the SANS Advisory Board winner.

The SANS Advisory Board represents a collective of SANS instructors and industry practitioners.

Nominations Open – Friday, August 1, 2025 Nominations Close – Monday, September 15, 2025 Voting Opens – Monday, September 22, 2025 Voting Closes – Wednesday, October 8, 2025 Awards Ceremony — Winners Announced - Sunday, December 14, 2025

There will be two winners per category – one selected by a popular vote and one selected by a SANS/industry committee.

There will be a simple form available online.

Sunday, December 14 in Washington, DC during SANS Cyber Defense Initiative 2025.

The awards ceremony will be by invitation-only, but it will be livestreamed here on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook. Choose your channel of choice, and select "Attend/Notify Me" on the landing page to be notified as the event date approaches.