Announcing the winners of the 2025 CyberScoop 50 awards

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Scoop News Group is thrilled to honor the standout winners of the 2025 CyberScoop 50 Awards, recognizing the leaders who protect our networks, data, and infrastructure while driving innovation across cybersecurity.

Over three months, voters nationwide nominated and selected trailblazers who demonstrated exceptional dedication, creativity, and resilience. With more than 800,000 votes across five categories, this year’s honorees truly represent the best in the field.

From rising stars launching impactful careers to seasoned officials shaping policy and strategy, the CyberScoop 50 highlights the breadth and brilliance of the infosec community. We celebrate these remarkable individuals for their vital work safeguarding our digital world.

The winners, alphabetically by category, are:

Lifetime Achievement

Amit Yoran

Cybersecurity Visionary 

Al Bowden – Deputy CIO, Cyber Operations Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, Dept. of State

Josh “CoCo” Crisp – CISO, Air Force

Yaki Faitelson – Co-Founder, Varonis 

Tom Hines – AO, Chief Architect Network & Security, Defense Health Agency 

Ami Luttwak – Co-Founder & CTO, Wiz 

Adele Merritt – CIO, NIH 

Brandon Pugh – Principal Cyber Adviser, U.S. Army 

Stephen Schmidt – CSO, Amazon 

Ari Schwartz – Managing Director of Cybersecurity Services, Venable LLP 

Government Leadership 

Gurpreet Bhatia – Principal Director, CIO, Cybersecurity & Deputy CISO, Department of Defense 

Alexei Bulazel – Sr. Director for Cyber, National Security Council 

Cynthia Carpenter – Director, DIB Operations, Department of Defense 

Ryan Higgins – CISO, Dept. of Commerce 

Rep. Morgan Lutrell – Congressman, R-Texas 

Tahira Mammen – Chief, AI Security Center, NSA

Manny Medrano – Director, Cybersecurity Monitoring & Operations, Dept. of State 

Vu Nguyen – CISO, Dept. of Justice

Chris Pymm – Zero Trust Portfolio Manager – Thunderdome Program, DISA 

Dr. Morgan Stern – Technical Lead, Cryptography, Secure Engineering Solutions Group, Cybersecurity, NSA

Industry Leadership 

John Ackerly – CEO, Virtru 

Michael Barnhart – Principal I3 Insider Investigator, DTEX Systems 

Chris DeRusha – Director, Global Public Sector Compliance, Google 

Dave DeWalt – CEO & Founder, NightDragon

Zakir Durumeric – Co-Founder, Censys 

Sean Frazier – Federal CSO, Okta

Ken Kartsen – VP, Worldwide Public Sector, Wiz

Shawn Kingsberry – VP, Cybersecurity, SAIC 

Daniel Kroese – VP, Public Policy & Government Affairs, Palo Alto Networks 

Matt Mandrgoc – Head, Public Sector, Zoom

Wen Masters – VP, Cyber Technologies, MITRE 

Ryan McArthur – Federal CTO, ZScaler 

Adam Meyers – SVP, Head of Counter Adversary Operations, CrowdStrike 

Travis Rosiek – Public Sector CTO, Rubrik 

Scott Smith – Cybersecurity Practice Lead, Public Sector, EY 

Anto Tossounian – GVP, Public Sector, Splunk 

Chris Wysopal – Co-Founder & Chief Security Evangelist, Veracode 

Most Inspiring Up & Comer 

Dakota Cary – China-Focused Consultant, SentinelOne 

Casey Dolen – Sr. Policy Advisor, Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, Office of the National Cyber Director 

Kevin Heaney – Cyber Operations Exercise Planner, OCIO, NNSA

Austin Larsen – Principal Cyber Analyst, Google Threat Intelligence Group 

Innovation of the Year 

Edera Protect – Edera

HQC Post-Quantum Algorithm – NIST

COSMOS: Moving Mission Light Years Ahead – Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific

Constellation – DARPA & U.S. Cyber Command 

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

Technology

• European parliament members call for slowdown of Serbia’s EU entry over spyware use

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure