The 2026 Fortress Cyber Security Awards are open. If you want to move from idea to action, here’s your quick link: Fortress Cyber Security Awards.
This year’s set was built for a far wider audience than PR or B2B teams alone. Security and risk leaders keep asking for recognition that aligns with enterprise risk, investor trust, and measurable resilience. That is the design principle for this program.
Business Intelligence Group uses a transparent, peer driven judging model. The result reads like evidence you can use with customers, auditors, and board committees. Credibility produces real operational value, not vanity metrics.
New categories aligned to real enterprise risk
Three new additions shape the 2026 program: Agentic AI Security Platform, GenAI Application Security AppSec, and Non Human Identity NHI Management. These sit exactly where boards and regulators continue to press for clarity.
For shared language around AI risk, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework offers a common structure for harms, context, and controls.
For teams working through GenAI AppSec, the OWASP LLM Top 10 explains prompt injection, data poisoning, and output handling in straightforward language.
For identity governance at scale, the NIST Digital Identity Guidelines continue to anchor audits, architecture reviews, and incident narratives.
Threats shaping budgets and headlines
Deepfake impersonation has shifted from novelty to real reputational and policy risk. The FBI AI Impersonation Alert is the cleanest reference point for executives evaluating exposure.
Supply chain exposure continues to dominate breach reviews. The ENISA Supply Chain Threat Landscape shows why third party risk grows faster than internal controls.
Zero Trust remains the architecture leadership teams understand most clearly. The CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model helps you benchmark where you stand and what comes next.
Synthetic identity fraud sits at the intersection of revenue, customer trust, and compliance. Finance teams respond well to the Federal Reserve Synthetic Identity White Paper and the FTC Identity Guidance.
People honors tied to culture and performance
Recognition influences adoption, retention, and leadership development. Research continues to show how affirmation shifts workplace behavior. The HBR Power of Affirmation at Work is a strong reference when explaining why these awards matter internally.
Here is the 2026 people set:
Principal Strategist
Aligns security KPIs with business targets so strategy and scoreboard match.
Cyber Lead
Institutionalizes controls and compliance across teams so the program scales cleanly.
Intelligence Lead
Brings predictive analytics and AI driven insight into the stack to shrink incidents before they surface.
Technical Fellow
The practitioner whose discovery or build materially reduced a threat and moved a measurable metric.
The Unit
A department or cross functional team of up to seven members who executed a disciplined project with clear measurable impact.
How to write for enterprise readers
Awards work best when treated as strategic artifacts. Start with a well defined problem statement, the control or workflow change, and a before and after metric that matters to finance or operations. Tie the narrative to Zero Trust pillars, identity guidance, or AI risk frameworks and approvals from legal and audit flow much faster.
Full 2026 category lineup
Analytics
Application Security
Artificial Intelligence
Agentic AI Security Platform new
Authentication and Identity
Blockchain
Cloud Security
Continuous Exposure Management CEM
Compliance
Cryptography
Cyber Resilience and Recovery Excellence
Data Protection
Deepfake Detection and Anti Phishing
Detection
Encryption
Endpoint
GenAI Application Security AppSec new
Identity Security Posture Management ISPM
Incident Response
Internet of Things IoT
Leadership
Network Security
Non Human Identity NHI Management new
Operational Technology OT
Organizational Excellence
Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Synthetic Identity Fraud Prevention
Supply Chain
Threat Detection
Threat Hunting
Training
Zero Trust
People honors: Principal Strategist, Cyber Lead, Technical Fellow, Intelligence Lead, The Unit.
Ready to submit
If momentum matters, start your nomination today: Fortress Cyber Security Awards.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko