TCN Cybersecurity Awards · Class of 2026

The TCN Cybersecurity Awards

The cybersecurity industry's most rigorous, editorial awards programme. No pay-to-enter. No sponsored categories. Every methodology, every shortlist, every dissenting vote — published in the open. Celebrating the people, teams and products defending the world from cyber threats.

7Categories
$0Entry fee
100%Editorial — no paid placements
PublicMethodology & dissents
Submit a nomination → How we judge

2026 nominees

Vote for the winner in each category. One vote per nominee per 24 hours.

Solutions

Top product platforms recognised for technical innovation, customer outcomes and roadmap strength.

5 nominees

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)

MITRE evals · Customer references · Trial deployment
  1. 01
    Sophos Intercept X Sophos · Mid-market and channel-led deployments
    41 votes
  2. 02
    Palo Alto Cortex XDR Palo Alto Networks · Palo Alto firewall customers consolidating XDR
    40 votes
  3. 03
    Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Microsoft · Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 E5
    39 votes
  4. 04
    SentinelOne Singularity SentinelOne · Organizations standardizing on a unified XDR platform
    38 votes
  5. 05
    CrowdStrike Falcon CrowdStrike Holdings · Large enterprise SOC teams
    37 votes

Extended Detection & Response (XDR)

Cross-telemetry coverage · Correlation depth · TCO transparency

No nominees yet — admin can pick from Solutions to nominate them here.

Services

Managed and outsourced security delivered by humans, judged on SLA evidence and customer outcomes.

5 nominees

Managed Detection & Response (MDR)

SLA evidence · Customer interviews · Incident timelines
  1. 01
    Secureworks Taegis ManagedXDR Secureworks (Sophos) · Global enterprises needing 24x7 follow-the-sun coverage
    50 votes
  2. 02
    Expel MDR Expel · Cloud-native mid-market with a small in-house team
    49 votes
  3. 03
    eSentire MDR eSentire · Regulated mid-market (legal, financial, healthcare)
    48 votes
  4. 04
    Red Canary MDR Red Canary · EDR customers wanting "bring-your-own-tool" MDR
    47 votes
  5. 05
    Arctic Wolf Aurora Platform Arctic Wolf · Mid-market without a 24/7 in-house SOC
    46 votes

SOC-as-a-Service

Named analyst model · 24/7 coverage · Onboarding speed

No nominees yet — admin can pick from Solutions to nominate them here.

Virtual CISO (vCISO)

Executive references · Board outcomes · Engagement model

No nominees yet — admin can pick from Solutions to nominate them here.

Companies

Organisations distinguished by the impact of their research, advocacy and influence on the field.

6 nominees

Threat Intelligence

Original research · Detection impact · Industry citations
  1. 01
    CrowdStrike Falcon Adversary Intelligence CrowdStrike Holdings · Existing Falcon customers extending into CTI
    55 votes
  2. 02
    ThreatConnect ThreatConnect · Teams combining TIP with SOAR automation
    54 votes
  3. 03
    Anomali ThreatStream Anomali · SOC teams aggregating multi-source feeds
    53 votes
  4. 04
    Mandiant Threat Intelligence Mandiant (Google Cloud) · Mature CTI programs and threat hunters
    52 votes
  5. 05
    Recorded Future Recorded Future (Mastercard) · Enterprise CTI teams and Fortune 500 SOCs
    51 votes
  6. 06
    Test Page
    29 votes

Editor's Pick

TCN editorial leadership's discretionary recognition for outstanding contribution to cybersecurity this year.

0 nominees

Editor's Pick

Selected by TCN editorial leadership. No public voting.

No nominees yet — admin can pick from Solutions to nominate them here.

Public voting is open until 31 December. Final winners are decided by editorial leadership using methodology + jury + public vote signal. The jury reserves the right to recognise editorial value above raw vote totals. Read methodology →

Nomination timeline

4 stages · fully transparent
  1. 01
    September 1

    Nominations open

    Self-nominate or nominate a peer, team or product via the form below.

  2. 02
    October 31

    Nominations close

    Editorial team reviews every submission against published eligibility criteria.

  3. 03
    November 15

    Shortlist announced

    3–5 finalists per category. Customer reference checks begin.

  4. 04
    January (W1)

    Winners announced

    Winners published with full methodology, dissenting opinions and conflict disclosures.

Methodology

Read the full methodology

TCN Awards are decided in two parts. The community vote signals which nominees the industry cares about most. The editorial review applies independent judgement, hands-on testing and customer reference checks. Together they produce a result that is transparent, defensible and not for sale.

01
40% of final score

Public vote

Anyone may vote for any nominee within a category. Votes are anonymous, rate-limited to one per nominee per 24 hours per IP, and counted live. The community vote weighs 40 per cent of each nominee's final score.

  • Open from 1 September to 31 December every year.
  • Transparent counter — anyone can audit the leaderboard.
  • Anti-abuse: IP rate-limit plus browser fingerprint heuristics.
  • Bots and coordinated inauthentic activity are removed before the final tally.
02
60% of final score

Editorial review

TCN editorial leadership and an independent jury of CISOs, researchers and academics score every nominee against published criteria. This part guarantees the result reflects merit — not just marketing reach.

  • Hands-on evaluation where trial access is available.
  • A minimum of three independent customer reference interviews.
  • Each juror declares conflicts of interest publicly before judging begins.
  • Editorial firewall: advertising relationships are invisible to the scoring team.
  • Dissenting opinions are published alongside the result.

Final score = (Public vote × 0.40) + (Editorial review × 0.60). The jury reserves the right to recognise editorial value above raw vote totals in clearly justified cases — every override is published.

Past winners

Browse winners by year and category
Class of 2026
NOMINATIONS OPEN

Nominate now

Submissions are read by editorial leadership. We accept self-nominations, peer nominations and vendor entries. Include the category, the nominee, a public reference, and a short (300-word) justification with evidence.

  • No fees, no upsells, no sponsorship requirement
  • Editor acknowledgement within 48 hours
  • Anonymous nominations accepted
  • All conflicts of interest published
  • Encrypted in transit
  • Reply < 48h
  • 100% editorial

Frequently asked

Is there a fee to enter?
No. We never charge entry fees or accept "sponsored" categories. The TCN Awards exist precisely because most industry awards are pay-to-play — we are the editorial alternative.
Can vendors that advertise on TCN win?
Yes — but the advertising relationship is published openly alongside the result. Editorial scoring is firewalled from the commercial team, and any juror with a commercial relationship to a nominee is required to recuse themselves.
Can I nominate myself / my team / my product?
Yes — self-nominations are welcome and account for roughly half of our shortlist each year. You will not be penalised for self-nominating, but third-party references and public evidence carry weight.
What evidence should I include?
Anything verifiable: published blog posts, CVE credit, conference talks, public customer case studies, metrics (dwell time, mean time to contain, customer growth). For SOC / CISO categories, we ask for the names of two customer or peer references we can contact.
How is the jury chosen?
The jury includes TCN editorial leadership plus an independent advisory panel of CISOs, researchers and academics. The full panel is published before judging begins, along with each member's declared conflicts of interest.
Can the public vote?
No. Public voting is correlated with marketing budget, not merit. Winners are decided by editorial methodology and the independent jury — the same standards as Forbes 30 Under 30 or BBC Sports Personality, but with conflicts disclosed.