Category 01
SOC & Defensive Security
SOC analysts, incident responders, SIEM engineers, threat hunters, blue team members who defend organizations against cyber threats every day.
Opens Sunday, September 13, 2026 ← All categories
Who should apply
- SOC analysts and engineers monitoring and triaging alerts
- Incident responders leading forensics and containment
- SIEM/SOAR architects building detection pipelines
- Threat hunters proactively finding adversaries
- Blue team leads running detection-as-code
What judges look for
- Meaningful reduction in mean-time-to-detect (MTTD) or mean-time-to-respond (MTTR)
- Novel detection rules or playbooks that caught real threats
- SOC automation that freed analyst time for higher-value work
- Threat hunting discoveries with business impact
- Clear metrics showing security posture improvement
Eligibility
Universal criteria
Experience & leadership
3–5+ years in technology, mid-tier (non-CXO) roles, proven leadership and impact.
Innovation & creativity
Demonstrated problem-solving and creative solutions within your field.
Growth & mentorship
Continuous learning plus developing others through mentorship or training.
Adaptability & resilience
Proven resilience through crises or significant organizational change.
Ethics & responsibility
High ethical standards, diversity & inclusion, community and sustainability work.
Candidates
Nominees in SOC & Defensive Security
Showing 33 of 69 applicants
Muhammad Adnan Hameed
NomineeMuhammad Ahmed
NomineeMuhammad Ali Khan
NomineeMuhammad Anas Kamrna
NomineeMuhammad Arslan
NomineeMuhammad Ashar Aftab
NomineeMuhammad Buksh
NomineeMuhammad Farhan Chishti
NomineeMuhammad Hamza
⭐ FinalistMuhammad idrees Aslam
NomineeMuhammad Mobeen
NomineeMuhammad Raheel
NomineeMuhammad Shahzar khan
NomineeMuhammad Shehryar Saleem Mayo
NomineeMuhammad Tayyab Aslam
🏆 WinnerMuhammad Waqas
NomineeMuhammad Zain Khan
NomineePervaiz Malik
NomineeS Sikander Hassan Naqvi
NomineeSaira Qureshi
NomineeSalman Khan
NomineeSikander IQBAL
NomineeSoomal Qureshi
NomineeSyed Hyder Hasan
🏆 WinnerSyed Muhammad Abbas Zaidi
NomineeSyed Muhammad Shahab Uddin
🏆 WinnerSyed Muzammil
NomineeSyed Salman Ali
NomineeUmar Saeed Khan
🏆 WinnerUsman Siddiqui
NomineeUzair Ahmed Zubair
NomineeWaniya Osama
NomineeZain UL Abideen
NomineeCommon questions
FAQ
I work at an MSSP — am I eligible?
Yes. If you manage SOC operations for clients, you qualify. Describe the scope and scale of the environment you defend.
We use a managed SIEM — can I still apply?
Absolutely. The award is about outcomes and leadership, not whether you built the tool yourself.
Applications open Sunday, September 13, 2026
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