India's premier CISO engagement and felicitation platform once again invites the community to honour CISOs for their commitment, resilience and groundbreaking innovation in cybersecurity. We invite CISOs to participate and be recognised at the DynamicCISO Excellence Awards gala, hosted by Information Security Media Group (ISMG) in Mumbai in December 2026. Beyond the accolade, award recipients will have the opportunity to present their work to the broader community at the DynamicCISO Summit.

• There is no application fee. Each applicant may submit entries in up to two categories, selected from the categories listed below.

• The nominee must either hold the position of CISO or be the final decision-maker for the India market within their organisation, and must have been directly involved in the initiative for which they are nominated.

• The nominee's organization must have a workforce of at least 1,000 employees.

• The nominee must have implemented initiatives, programmes or processes within their current organisation and achieved measurable outcomes in the past 12 months.

• Provide all information in English.

• Nominations are completed in two stages (see the Nomination Process below) to keep the initial commitment brief while still allowing a thorough, evidence-backed submission.
• Deadline: October 31, 2026. Late or incomplete submissions will not qualify.

• Nominations that do not comply with these guidelines will not be eligible.

• For queries, write to awardsnominations@ismg-summits.com.

Nomination Process
Completing a full, evidence-backed nomination typically takes 45–60 minutes, with five essay questions per category. To respect nominees' time from the start, the process runs in two stages:

Stage 1 — Expression of Interest (approx. 10–15 minutes) Basic and professional details, category selection, and a short 100-word statement of intent for the chosen category. Open to self-nominations and third-party nominations (see below)
Stage 2 — Full Nomination (approx. 45–60 minutes) Nominees who complete Stage 1 are invited to submit the full category questionnaire along with supporting evidence. This stage is scored by the jury.

Who can nominate
Nominations may be submitted by the nominee, a colleague or manager, or a PR/marketing agency on their behalf — provided the nominee reviews and consents to the submission before Stage 2 is finalised (see Declaration & Consent).

At least two independent jurors under mark every nomination Chatham House-style confidentiality; individual scores are never disclosed. The published weighting below is shared so nominees understand what the jury is assessing:

Criterion	Weight
Impact & measurable outcomes	35%
Innovation & differentiation	25%
Leadership & strategic alignment	20%
Completeness & quality of evidence	20%

ISMG does not influence the jury's independent evaluation or selection of winners.

Award Categories

Thirteen categories, reconciled against the DynamicCISO 2026 sponsor prospectus so that every category promoted to partners has a live nomination pathway. The Appendix includes a full reconciliation log.

1. CISO of the Year
2. AI Governance & Responsible AI Leadership
3. DPDP Act & Data Privacy Excellence
4. Security Architecture and Zero Trust Transformation
5. Cloud Security Excellence
6. OT/ICS & Critical Infrastructure Security
7. Third-Party & Supply Chain Risk Management
8. Cyber Operations and Response Innovation
9. Identity, Access & Machine Identity Security Innovation
10. Women in Cybersecurity Leadership
11. Emerging Security Leader of the Year
12. Editor's Choice Award
13. Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement

For any questions, reach out to: awardsnominations@ismg-summits.com


Note: The information disclosed in the nomination form, evaluation process and final scores are proprietary to ISMG and will not be disclosed to any third party, including the other nominees.