2021 CSO30 ASEAN awards: Nominations are now open

The inaugural awards honour the two core pillars of business value and leadership by transformational and inspiring CISOs at both in-country and regional levels across Southeast Asia.

CSO ASEAN is proud to launch the inaugural edition of the CSO30 ASEAN awards in 2021, recognising the top 30 leading cybersecurity executives driving innovation, strengthening resiliency, and influencing industry change.

Reflective of IDG’s increased commitment to the region, the CSO30 ASEAN awards are aligned to a global awards program and viewed as a mark of excellence within the cybersecurity industry.

[ Nominate yourself or someone else for the CSO30 ASEAN awards today! ]

In 2021, the CSO30 ASEAN awards will be judged to a uniform set of criteria set by the CSO ASEAN editorial board, focusing on the core pillars of business value and leadership—honouring transformational and inspiring CISOs at both in-country and regional levels across Southast Asia:

• Under the business value pillar, the nomination will describe the security innovations introduced over the past two years that have changed the way the business is protected and operates.
• Under the leadership pillar, the nomination will describe the ways in which the security leader has collaborated and influenced the organisation and its leadership team in relation to cyber development.

According to IDG’s security priorities research, half of organisations across Asia (50%) now house a dedicated CISO role, ahead of the North America (40%) and EMEA (38%) regions.

Yet the pandemic continues to alter security strategies as organisations evolve to meet changing market and business dynamics, such as work-from-home mandates and increased risks related to cloud migration and digital transformation.

The transition to a highly connected remote workforce has further intensified the pressures placed on ASEAN-based CISOs, with security, cloud, digital, and data becoming interwoven challenges which must be handled collaboratively.

Likewise, the turn of a new decade brought an unrivalled—if not historic—stress test that revealed previously unknown gaps across the risk landscape in Southeast Asia. With widespread attention on business risks, the concepts of resilience, preparedness, and IT security now loom large for enterprise organisations from the boardroom and employees to third-party partners and customers.

CSO30 ASEAN awards entry criteria

The CSO30 ASEAN awards will play host to the most innovative, resilient, and influential cybersecurity executives across the region, documenting examples of best practice while outlining common business challenges and key future priorities ahead.

The awards are open to the top ASEAN-based cybersecurity leaders in an organisation who has overall responsibility and control of the cyber security vision and direction for the company.

The awards program recognises the leading individuals and organisations delivering security projects and initiatives which demonstrate outstanding business value and innovation.

Successful CISOs, cybersecurity executives, and businesses will help overcome rising threat levels across Southeast Asia, tackling ongoing challenges in relation to increasingly sophisticated hackers and cybersecurity talent shortages.

In addition to using security as a competitive differentiator, winners will also be acknowledged for assuming leadership positions in advancing the cybersecurity conversation both internally and externally, documenting examples of industry best practice ASEAN-wide.

Specifically, the 2021 CSO ASEAN questionnaire seeks to determine:

• The security-led initiatives and projects that have added value to how an organisation manages threat levels.
• Why the innovations were unique in the marketplace.
• The efforts to ensure collaboration with the wider organisation and leadership team in relation to cybersecurity.
• Approach to creating an internal positive cybersecurity culture that inspires individual and collective company growth.

Nominations are now open and run until Friday, 17 September 2021. Submissions are free to enter and can be self-nominated or nominated on behalf of someone else—follow the link or download the CSO30 ASEAN awards submission form to participate.

The CSO30 ASEAN awards will be judged to a uniform set of criteria set by the CSO ASEAN editorial board. Submissions will be confidentially assessed by a panel of judges spanning security leaders, industry experts, analysts, and academics. This year will also see the introduction of two individual awards, acknowledging CISO excellence across business value and leadership.

The word count for responses to questions under each of the two pillars—business value and leadership—should be no more than 800 words per section (1,600 words in total for both pillars).

The 2021 CSO30 ASEAN awards winners will be unveiled during a virtual celebration on 25 November 2021, alongside dedicated editorial streams in partnership with IDC to deep-dive into CISO strategies for future innovation, resiliency, and growth.