People have different views regarding industry awards. It's understandable since there are quite a lot of bullsh*t award programs looking to cash out.
Not surprisingly, in our sophisticated, non-BS IT security industry, many people have a critical approach towards awards (although that does not mean they won't get excited when their company wins "company of the year").
If the community had to guess, how many IT security awards are out there, what would it say? Does it feel like there are thousands award programs or only a few selected ones? We asked 371 members of the IT security community.
The results demonstrate the people's different views. The highest number of people (123) voted for the highest option (>1000) while the second highest number of people (91) voted for the lowest option (<20).
How many IT security awards programs are out there?
Award programs are conducted by known (or lesser known) publications like CRN Channel and SC Magazine, research/review companies like G2 and Aragon, security consortiums like (ISC)2 dedicated programs like Cyber Security Excellence Awards and Cyber Security Breakthrough Awards. Each programs usually gives out awards at different categories such as 'most innovative company', 'best project of the year', 'security CTO of the year', etc.
As of today, there are about 270 IT security award programs, but with new programs opening and others closing, this changes by the day. It is safe to say the range is between 250 to 300 award programs.
Only 20% of the respondents got it right. It make sense though. Until Security Awards Guru, there was no one place that kept tabs on all awards.