The quality of nominees for the Scottish Cyber Awards 2018 has astounded judges, according to those who have pored over the record number of entries.

The ceremony, hosted by the Scottish Business Resilience Centre is now in its third year. It is due to take place tonight (28th November) at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in the heart of Edinburgh, aims to bring together the Scottish cyber community to celebrate its outstanding achievements.

The event’s flagship prize, the Champion of Champions award, is said to represent the very best of the nominees. To be eligible to scoop this top honour, candidates need to have win at least one other award on the night.

In 2017, it was Toni Scullion of St Kentigern’s Academy who was named Champion of Champions, having also been named Cyber Security Teacher of the Year. Scullion was chosen because judges felt she represented the future of the sector, championed diversity and exemplified initiative and innovation.

The 2018 Champion of Champions has been selected by CGI UK, which is one of the award show’s lead sponsors. Richard Holmes, the company’s VP of Cyber Security Services, CGI UK, has been one of the Scottish Cyber Awards 2018 judges.

He said: “This has been the first year I’ve been judging, but the general view from the judging panel is that there’s a continuing trend of strength and number of entries compared to previous years. I’ve really enjoyed being involved in the judging panel.

“It was great to see a wide range of different bits of cyber-related excellence and good practice happening in Scotland, whether that be from a range of type of submissions, whether that be from SMEs, schools, universities, Scottish Government or bigger industry, and across all sorts of different initiatives. I think that’s really healthy to see.”

Commenting on selecting the Champion of Champions, he added: “We found it pretty hard to make that choice but I’ve really enjoyed looking at all of the entries. I, personally, am absolutely looking forward to meeting the finalists at the event because I’ve only read and talked about them and not met them in person. I’m really looking forward to the event.”

Scottish Cyber Awards 2018 Nominees

Best Cyber Start Up

CyberAggress
Cyan Forensics

Best New Cyber Talent

John Young – People’s Postcode Lottery
Peter Aaby – Edinburgh Napier University
Kinga Kieczkowska – ZoneFox

Best Cyber Breakthrough

ZoneFox
CyberShell Solutions
Quorum Cyber

Collaboration with Police Scotland

ID Cyber Solutions
TrendMicro

Cyber Evangelist of the Year

Rory Alsop – HSBC, ISF, B-Sides, ISACA, IISP, Security Stack Exchange
Basil (Vassillis) Manoussos – Edinburgh Napier University
Harry McLaren – ECS Security

Cyber Security Teacher of the Year

Scott Hunter – Kyle Academy
Steven Whyte – Gracemount High School
Robert Quigley – Highland Council – Care and Learning

Outstanding Woman in Cyber

Kirsty McFaul – Education Scotland
Catherine Fitzimons, Amina Tahir and Rachel Cooper (Turing’s Testers) – St. Kentigerns Academy
Rachel Jones – SnapDragon Monitoring

Leading Light Innovation

SOCLAB – Satisnet/Edinburgh Napier University
My1Login
CyberShell Solutions

Best Cyber Education Programme

MSc in Advanced Security and Digital Forensics – Edinburgh Napier University
Cyber Christmas Lectures
Learning & Development Team – City of Edinburgh Council

Outstanding Cyber Team

University of St Andrews IT Security Team – University of St Andrews
Police Scotland Cyber Crime Prevention Team – Police Scotland
Turing’s Testers – St. Kentigerns Academy

Best Customer Experience

Quorum Cyber
7Elements
Seric Systems