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SANS Difference Makers Awards

The SANS Difference Makers Awards shine a light on the cybersecurity practitioners who are leading innovative developments in the industry, who’ve made outstanding security achievements, and who are contributing back to the InfoSec community in ways that deserve recognition.
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Difference Makers Awards2024 Categories & FinalistsFAQPast Winners

Tune in for the DMA Ceremony Livestream

Sunday, December 15th at 7:30pm EST (UTC-5)

The 2024 Difference Makers Awards ceremony will be livestreamed 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.

Interested in Sponsoring the 2024 DMA's?

If you'd like to learn more about how your organization can be involved in this year's ceremony, email us at differencemakers@sans.org.

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Why are the DMAs special? 

There are thousands of cyber security practitioners out there who are quietly succeeding and making breakthroughs every day in advancing security. It's time to recognize these individuals and teams.

At the SANS Cyber Defense Initiative conference in December 2024, SANS will hold its annual celebration of the most dedicated and innovative people who made a difference in security in 2024. 

This prestigious annual awards program honors individuals and teams in the cyber security community who have made a measurable and significant difference in security. Through their implementation of security processes or technology, each person has raised the bar in enabling secure business operations and reducing risk.

We have expanded the awards to include top mentors, content creators and the most influential champions focused on building the next generation. We've also partnered with on Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings from Hacker Valley Media as they share our passion for supporting the unsung heroes of cybersecurity and the humans at work behind the technology.

The common denominator in each nominee is their willingness and ability to do what SANS calls 'Fight the Good Fight' in advancing the state of practice in cybersecurity.

Difference Makers Awards 2024 Categories & Finalists

CategoryDescriptionNominees

Article or Book of the Year

Published content in book or article form that makes a significant contribution to cybersecurity literature.

Russian Information Warfare - by Dr. Bilyana Lilly

The Mighty Threat Intelligence Warrior - by Nicole Hoffman

Stronger Together: Women in Cybersecurity - by David Meece and Emily Zakkak

Cyber for Builders: The Essential Guide to Building a Cybersecurity Startup - by Ross Haleliuk

Teaching Cybersecurity: A Handbook for Teaching the Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge in a Conventional Classroom - by Tamara Shoemaker, Daniel Shoemaker and Ken Sigler

People’s Champion of the Year

Deeply supports the community through mentorship and/or social media presence provides valuable resources and connections for others in the field. Devotes significant time and energy to fostering talent and support those getting into cybersecurity.

Gianna Whitver

Tennisha Martin

David Meece

Lynn Dohm

Confidence Staveley

Caitlin Sarian

Diversity Champion of the Year

Devotes significant time and energy to fostering talent and increasing representation and participation of under-represented minorities.

Tennisha Martin

Lynn Dohm

Stacey Champagne

Jamie Johnson

Aastha Sahni

Innovation of the Year (Open-Source or Product Tool)

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

David Bianco, Ryan Fetterman, Sydney Marrone for ‘The PEAK Threat Hunting Framework’

Dr. Mark Carney

Christian Peter

Jean-Pierre Lesueur

Mick Douglas - Infosec Innovations - Concierge

SGM Michael Bozman

Podcast, Livestream or Video Series of the Year

Podcast or video of live-streamed content that makes a significant contribution to the industry.

Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks

Dani Woolf - Audience 1st

Simply Cyber Daily Cyber Threat Brief

BHIS: Talking bout the news

Paul's Security Weekly

Rising Star

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

Jack Sharpe

Rich Greene

Apurv Singh Gautam

Keyur Rajyaguru

Yaamini Barathi Mohan

Team of the Year

A team who has done extraordinary work in the industry.

Black Girls Hack

KC7 Team

709th Cyberspace Squadron, Air Force Technical Applications Center’s Cybersecurity Team

Splunk SURGe

Sygnia Incident Response Team

Practitioner of the Year

An individual who has done extraordinary work in the industry.

Ian Whiffin

Immanuel Chavoya

Thomas Roccia

Nikki Robinson

Genie Sugene Gan

CISO of the Year

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

Annessa O. McKenzie

Matt Hillary

Ira Winkler

Kayla Williams

Raj Badhwar

Cybersecurity Company of the Year

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

ExtraHop

MITRE

Splunk, a Cisco company

Dragos

risk3sixty

Lifetime Achievement Award

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

Gene Spafford

Carmen Marsh

Lisa Ventura MBE

Tony Sager

Stephen Northcutt

Ira Winkler

2023 Difference Makers Awards Ceremony | Watch the Replay

The awards ceremony took place in Washington, DC on Wednesday, December 13, during SANS Cyber Defense Initiative 2023. It was a most special night of highlighting and celebrating our nominees — amazing unsung heroes in the cybersecurity community. Catch the replay on your channel of choice below.

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Advisory Board

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Chris Cochran
Chris Cochran is a dynamic cybersecurity industry leader known for his unique blend of technical expertise and creative storytelling. With roots in the US Marine Corps and a distinguished tenure at organizations like the National Security Agency, US Cyber Command, Mandiant, and Netflix, Chris has been at the forefront of threat intelligence, Incident Response, and security operations. In 2019, Chris co-founded and led Hacker Valley Media as CEO until passing the reins to Ron Eddings in 2023. Chris created several award-winning media properties during this time, including Technically Divided and Webby-nominated Hacker Valley Studio.
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Ron Eddings
Ronald Eddings is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hacker Valley Media. He is a cybersecurity professional, and content creator whose ingenuity, dedication, and ambition have earned him a reputation as a trusted industry leader.
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Delisha Hodo
Delisha comes from an educational non-profit background, spending 5 years supporting K12 students and their families through the college process. Her passion for serving and supporting students inspired her transition into higher education and cybersecurity, where she now leads a team of advisors as the Assistant Director of Advising for SANS Technology Institute.
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Tia Hopkins
Tia Hopkins has spent more than two decades in the IT and IT Security industry and is currently the Field CTO & Chief Cyber Risk Strategist at eSentire. Additionally, Tia is an adjunct professor of Cybersecurity, a women’s tackle football coach, and a LinkedIn Learning Instructor. Tia is also pursuing her Executive MBA and PhD in Cybersecurity and is committed to building the cybersecurity talent pipeline by promoting diversity through empowerment, education, and mentorship.
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Dave Kennedy
Named one of the Top 10 IT Security Influencers in the World by CISO Platform, Dave has more than 20 years of experience in the security industry. As Binary Defense Co-Founder and Chief Hacking Officer, his experience and expertise guide our cybersecurity solutions, including the development of our proprietary managed detection and response technology.
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Rob T. Lee
Rob Lee is the Chief Curriculum Director and Faculty Lead at SANS Institute and runs his own consulting business specializing in information security, incident response, threat hunting, and digital forensics. With more than 20 years of experience in digital forensics, vulnerability and exploit discovery, intrusion detection/prevention, and incident response, he is known as “The Godfather of DFIR”.
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Kate Marshall
Kate Marshall has dedicated her career to making complex cybersecurity concepts easier to understand and more accessible to leaders and decision-makers. As the Director of Summits at the SANS Institute, Kate has led a talented team of operational and content creatives, producing high-quality training events throughout the country. These events bring together thought leaders and experts in the field, solidifying SANS as the most trusted source of information security training. She has also worked closely with technical authors developing training courses, building events and creating marketing strategies – all with a goal of making cybersecurity more approachable.
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Becky Pinkard
2023 Infosec Hall of Fame inductee, recipient of the 2022 Global Cyber Security Leadership Award - Editor's Choice (Global), previously appointed to the '100 Global CISOs for 2020' list and awarded 'CISO of the Year, 2020' by SC Awards Europe, Becky Pinkard is a renowned practitioner and commentator on the information security sector, and has been working in information technology and security since 1996.
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Lillian Teng
Lillian Teng is currently the Senior Director of Cyber Intelligence at Capital One. A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (Go Hoyas!), she joined the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) as a Cyber Special Agent in 2003, where she began tracking government backed cyber actors and served in both the Middle East and Asia.
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Wendi Whitmore
Wendi Whitmore serves as senior vice president for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks. She is a globally recognized cybersecurity leader, with two decades of experience building incident response and threat intelligence teams that have helped clients solve some of the world’s largest breaches. Wendi leads Unit 42, a team of elite incident responders and world-renowned threat researchers.
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Robert Wood
Robert Wood is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He leads enterprise cyber security, compliance, privacy, and counter intelligence functions at CMS and ensures the Agency complies with secure IT requirements while encouraging innovation.
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Sounil Yu
Sounil Yu is the author and creator of the Cyber Defense Matrix and the DIE Triad, which are reshaping approaches to cybersecurity. He's a Board Member of the FAIR Institute; fellow at GMU Scalia Law School's National Security Institute; guest lecturer at Carnegie Mellon; and advisor to many startups. Sounil is the co-founder and Chief AI Safety Officer at Knostic and previously served as the CISO at JupiterOne, CISO-in-Residence at YL Ventures, and Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America.

FAQ

  • 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.

  • Submissions open – Monday, August 12

    Submissions close – Friday, September 13

    Finalists announced – Monday, October 14

  • 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 15 in Washington, DC during SANS Cyber Defense Initiative 2024.

  • 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.

  • There is travel support available for invited nominees as needed.