At the RSA Conference in San Francisco on March 25, 2026, Cybersecurity Insiders unveiled the winners of this year’s Cybersecurity Excellence Awards. The event celebrated outstanding achievements in the field of cybersecurity, focusing on companies, products, and professionals that have set new benchmarks.
This year, the awards emphasized advancements in AI security, a theme that attracted a record number of nominations. The competition was fierce, with entries showcasing innovations in areas such as AI governance, agentic security, runtime protection, AI-powered threat detection, and identity and data protection.
AI Security Takes Center Stage
Holger Schulze, CEO of Cybersecurity Insiders, noted a significant shift in the focus of AI security solutions. He highlighted that while previous nominations concentrated on governance, this year saw a rise in technologies designed specifically for autonomous AI agent security—a concept virtually unknown just a year ago. Schulze remarked on the rapid pace of innovation in this domain.
The winners’ profiles and detailed results are accessible online, providing insights into the cutting-edge solutions recognized at the conference.
Assessing Enterprise Defense Capabilities
A crucial question emerged from the awards: are current enterprise defenses adapting quickly enough to meet the demands of AI-driven advancements? Cybersecurity Insiders is addressing this through its AI Defense Gap survey. This initiative involves interviews with over 150 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and senior security leaders, aiming to evaluate which existing defenses are robust against AI threats and what improvements are necessary.
The survey results, expected to be published shortly after the conference, will offer valuable perspectives to the cybersecurity community.
The Future of AI and Cybersecurity
Reflecting on AI’s evolution, Schulze pointed out that AI has progressed from simple chatbots to complex autonomous agents within a year. The future, he suggests, involves AI systems that can orchestrate and optimize tasks beyond their initial programming without human intervention. This evolution challenges current security frameworks, prompting the need for the AI Defense Gap survey to identify strengths and vulnerabilities in existing structures.
Cybersecurity Insiders, with its extensive research and reports, aims to guide organizations in understanding and addressing these challenges. The Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, now in their second decade, continue to highlight those who are bridging the gaps in cybersecurity.
For more information, contact Holger Schulze, Founder of Cybersecurity Insiders, at [email protected].
