Leading cyber professionals and organisations have been announced as finalists for the Scottish Cyber Awards 2019.

Now in its fourth year, the national award scheme recognises and celebrates those who are championing and leading the way in Scotland’s fight against cyber-crime. Hosted by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre (SBRC), the awards seek to shine a light on Scotland’s efforts in battling the ever rising number cyber threats, which are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

The winners of each category will be announced during an award ceremony, which will be held on Wednesday 20th November at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh. When the 2019 awards were announced in June, the judges were inundated with applications from across the country. The judges have arduously whittled down the number of hopefuls to a select few finalists across 11 categories.

Eamonn Keane, COO for Cyber and Innovation at SBRC, and Cyber Awards judge, said: “The Scottish Cyber Awards continues to attract more and more entries every year from exceptionally talented people.

“In this very dynamic environment with the ever-increasing range of attacks on businesses, it’s imperative that we celebrate some of the unsung everyday heroes who are doing their bit to put Scotland in the spotlight as leaders in the battle against cyber-crime.”

Fellow judge Mandy Haeburn-Little, chief executive of Business Resilience International Management (BRIM), said: “This has been a truly exceptional year for cyber talent in Scotland and the judges have seen not only new and emerging talent, but also some of the previous award winners building on their successes and now entering again under new categories.

“If there was one area to pick out, it would be the very high number of entries submitted under both Outstanding Woman in Cyber and Cyber Evangelist of the Year – excellent numbers in both.”

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Graeme Curtis, engineering director for Adarma, joined the judging team for the first time this year and was impressed by the standard of applicants. He said: “It was tremendous to see the breadth of talent represented in categories ranging from grass-roots initiatives and education, through to companies carving out their niches in Scotland and beyond.

“Of particular note was the quantity and quality of young talent who featured – this gives great hope for the future of our industry and can only be positive for maintaining and growing Scotland’s place at the forefront of cyber-security.”

The full list of finalists for the awards are:

Best Cyber Start Up

Zortrex

FullProxy

Outstanding Woman in Cyber

Emily Beeney, Morgan Stanley

Elaine McKechnie, Clydesdale Bank

Dr Jackie Riley, Glasgow Caledonian University

Best New Cyber Talent

Maria Khokhar, Seric System

Jamie O’Hare, Abertay University

Josh Fraser, Cyborn Limited

Judith King, ID Cyber Solutions Ltd

Best Cyber Breakthrough

Diddo Ltd

Edinburgh Napier University/Cyan Forensics

Barrier Networks

Best Collaboration with Police Scotland

ID Cyber Solutions Ltd

Young Scot

Cyber Evangelist of the Year

Toni MacKenzie and Clara O’Callaghan, Turing Testers

Basil Manoussos, Napier University

Alan Greig, Net Defence

Cyber Security Teacher of the Year

Toni Scullion, St Kentigerns Academy

Derek Harris, Douglas Ewart High School

Nicola Orr, Condorrat Primary School

Leading Light Innovation

Quorum Cyber

My1login

Edinburgh Napier University/Cyan Forensics

Best Cyber Education Programme

NCSC-Certified Undergraduate and GCHQ-Certified Postgraduate Programme in Cybersecurity

Skills Development Scotland – Discover Cyber Skills programme

Asecuritysite

Outstanding Cyber Team

Cyber Security Team – Information Services

The Cyber Academy

Scottish Local Authorities Information Security Group

Best Customer Experience (public vote open online until 10 October*)

Truststream

Check Point

ID Cyber Solutions

Seric Systems

*The public can place their vote for the ‘Best Customer Experience’ category online until 10th October via the Scottish Cyber Awards website: www.scottishcyberawards.co.uk