Entries open in inaugural SC Australia/AusCERT awards

As part of the IT security industry's leading global awards program, the SC Australia awards presented by AusCERT recognise those who patrol our electronic badlands.

IT security is a balancing act.

It's one of the rare areas of human endeavour where its exponents may work on either side of the fence and yet towards the shared goal of increasing trust. Researchers think their way through what were deemed secure systems to expose vulnerabilities to improve such technology.

A tool or technique turns to laudable or nefarious ends depending on the will of its wielder. For instance, port scanning or Wi-Fi stumbler software may be legitimately used by a responsible network admin or by a hacker as a prelude to attack. Email is an essential connecting medium for modern communications and yet it is a vector for con artists, sometimes with tragic results.

Private rights weigh against those of the state.

Mathematicians create codes and ciphers to protect the world's electronic transactions and citizens' privacy. The same technology that shields human rights workers in the world's trouble spots is used by crime rings to obscure their activities.

Arrayed against the dark uses of IT security technology and aided by recent Australian legislative changes are law enforcement agencies that pry into these systems to bring alleged wrongdoers to justice so protecting society.

These inaugural SC Australia Awards 2009 presented by AusCERT seek to recognise the professionals, organisations and products that daily repulse threats confronted by Australians.

Entries are invited in the following categories:

• CSO of the Year
• Security Vendor of the Year
• Security Product of the Year
• Innovation Award
• AusCERT Director's Award for Individual Excellence in Information Security
• AusCERT's Annual Award for Organisational Excellence in Information Security
• AusCERT's Award for Law Enforcement

Our expert judging panel of Australian security luminaries honours outstanding work by their peers in the trenches, the innovations happening in the vendor and service provider communities and excellence from governments, businesses and charities.

IT security is an exploding industry and one that is critical to our information infrastructure. It is only fitting that those who patrol our electronic borders receive the recognition they deserve.

Nate Cochrane
Editor in chief
SC Magazine (Australia)

Winners will be announced on May 19 at the SC Awards dinner and presentation at the Royal Pines Resort, Gold Coast, in conjunction with the AusCERT2009 Conference. 

For more information and an entry kit visit www.securecomputing.net.au/Awards