Cyber Security Influencer of the Year.

Some practitioners change one team. A few change how a whole field thinks. This category honours the people whose voice carries beyond their own desk, and the panel weighs what that voice actually moved.

Quick answer

What does the Cyber Security Influencer of the Year honour?

The Cyber Security Influencer of the Year category recognises the person whose voice shapes how the field thinks, learns and defends. It is judged on reach that changes behaviour: research others build on, talks that send people back to fix something real, plain explanations that help a wider audience understand a threat. The panel looks for evidence the nominee moved practice beyond their own organisation, mapped to the published criteria, not for follower counts or stage time alone. Introduced in the 2026 restructure of the programme, the category sits among five individual honours alongside Rising Star, Professional, Leader and Advocate. Like every category, it cannot be bought. The current holder is Paul Jackson, recognised in 2026 for three decades of work in digital forensics, cyber investigation and incident response across Asia-Pacific.

Who holds it

The 2026 Influencer of the Year

Winner 2026

Paul Jackson

Cyber Security Influencer · 2026

Paul Jackson was named Cyber Security Influencer of the Year in 2026. Now CEO of THEOS Cyber and based in Hong Kong, he has spent more than thirty years in digital forensics and incident response, including twenty-two years with the Hong Kong Police Force and senior roles at JPMorgan Chase and Kroll. His influence shows in the practitioners he has trained and the response work he has guided across the region.

A decade of winners sits in the Hall of Fame.

What the panel scores against

Influence is the hardest of the individual categories to judge well, because it is the easiest to fake. A large audience is not the test. The panel reads for the trail a nominee leaves in other people's work. Did a piece of research change how teams approach a problem? Did a talk or a piece of writing send someone back to patch something, brief a board, or rethink a control?

Three things carry weight. The first is original contribution, work that adds to what the field knows rather than restating it. The second is reach that lands, an audience who acted, not just watched. The third is generosity, the habit of explaining clearly so that people with less experience can follow. The strongest nominations show all three, and they show them with evidence anyone can check.

What a winning record looks like

A winning record reads like a record of usefulness. The nominee published, spoke or taught, and you can point to the people and teams who do their job differently as a result. The change is traceable to them, and it reaches past their own employer.

Weak nominations measure the wrong thing. They count followers, conference slots and reposts, and stop there. The panel reads past the metrics and looks for the moment a practitioner somewhere defended better because this person made the work clearer.

Earlier holders of this category

The Influencer honour has a longer history than the 2026 line-up suggests. Dr Franck Courbon of Cambridge and Ethicronics held it in 2025. Tarnveer Singh took it in 2023, and Jay Hira in 2022, the same year he was also named Cyber Personality of the Year. Clement Arul of Cybertronium held it in 2021. In 2020 a related honour, Cloud Security Influencer of the Year, went to Andy Green of Gemserv. Read the full list in the Hall of Fame.

How it is judged

The criteria the panel scores against

The Cyber Security Influencer of the Year award recognises an individual who has demonstrated exceptional influence within the cybersecurity industry. It celebrates influencers who raise awareness, share best practices, and shape conversations that drive positive change — those who engage diverse audiences, inspire collaboration, and promote a stronger and more inclusive cybersecurity community.

01Evidence of Influence: Evidence of an individual’s influence in the cybersecurity industry, including the size and engagement of their audience and their impact on raising the profile of cybersecurity.
02Raising Profile of Cyber Security: Evidence of efforts to elevate the visibility and importance of cybersecurity, through initiatives such as speaking engagements, thought leadership, or educational programmes.
03Enforcing Awareness: Evidence of efforts to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks and promote best practices among individuals, organisations, and communities.
04Enforcing Diversity: Evidence of initiatives or advocacy that promote diversity and inclusion, encouraging underrepresented groups to enter and thrive in cybersecurity roles.