Prime cybersecurity professionals from throughout the Federal authorities and business gathered on Thursday night at Morton’s in Washington, D.C., to honor the 2025 Cyber Defenders Award winners.
Nominated by their friends throughout the Federal authorities and business, this yr’s class of Cyber Defenders is made up of 42 tech safety stalwarts which might be making essential contributions to defend the tech infrastructure that’s foundational to fashionable authorities and society, and engineering the safety breakthroughs that can maintain us all forward of cyber adversaries.
“That is the fourth yr that MeriTalk has acknowledged those that are driving innovation and resilience within the cyber group, each inside businesses and within the non-public sector corporations that assist the ecosystem,” mentioned Caroline Boyd, principal of presidency applications for MeriTalk, on the awards ceremony held as a part of MeriTalk’s Tech Tonic.
“We all know it takes numerous arduous work to get this award, and we’re grateful for everybody’s contributions,” Boyd mentioned.
Try the complete list of winners. Right here’s what a few of them needed to inform us final night time after receiving their awards:
“It’s a validation of types for the arduous work that every one Federal employees do. I feel numerous us pour our coronary heart into our mission, and so it’s uncommon to get acknowledged for that effort, so this feels actually good,” mentioned Aastha Verma, the chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company’s Cybersecurity Division.
“I wish to thank my company for the work that they’re doing on behalf of the nation to advance our mission,” Verma added.
“I really feel very lucky to have gotten this award,” mentioned Scott Braus, director of cybersecurity operations on the Client Monetary Safety Bureau. “Loads of it has to do with a number of the cross-agency work that we’ve executed. We really gave some shows on some particular know-how implementations, and after we demonstrated how we’re utilizing them in an progressive method to those different businesses, we obtained an entire bunch of inquiries. You already know, ‘how’d you do this?’”
“With the ability to take a product that lots of people have and use it in a brand new and progressive manner actually did assist, not just for our group, however it helped numerous different organizations transfer up,” Braus mentioned.
“I respect this recognition of my capability to get issues executed throughout the Division of Protection and a few actually important issues so far as coaching, which I really like,” mentioned David McKeown, particular assistant for cybersecurity innovation within the Workplace of the Division of Protection Chief Info Officer.
“Being within the Federal authorities and making an attempt to make issues occur there isn’t all the time straightforward,” he mentioned. “You’ve obtained to beat numerous obstacles. There are bureaucracies, after all, that it’s a must to take care of, however you’ve set to work by way of it, and also you’ve obtained to determine get issues executed.”
McKeown was fast to share credit score with a number of senior members of the CIO workplace together with Randy Resnick, the workplace’s chief zero belief officer, Stacy Bostjanick, the workplace’s director of protection industrial base cybersecurity, and Sue Devaez, who leads cryptographic modernization efforts as deputy CIO for info know-how and digital modernization.
“On my group, they’re sort of fireplace and overlook – they know what they’re doing,” McKeown mentioned.
“Profitable an award is an honor, particularly with MeriTalk and the work that we’ve executed and the work that has been executed – it’s all the time good to get acknowledged outdoors of your division for the work that you simply do within the area,” mentioned Willie Crenshaw, Jr., the CEO at CyberPrime LLC and former director for Federal Info Safety Modernization Act and Excessive Worth Asset on the Division of Transportation.
“I’ve been in it for some time, however I’d prefer to shout out actually, lots of people,” Crenshaw added. “My present group at DoT, [they’re] actually supportive – like Jack Albright, Kelvin Taylor, and people guys – it’s simply been great, you realize, I’ve had good assist.”
“Business has a big mission, whether or not it’s a small enterprise or a big enterprise, to assist the federal government and a few actually important missions,” mentioned Todd Helfrich, vice chairman of Federal at Censys. “From a cyber perspective, there’s little question the adversary is coming at us each path they’ll. Understanding what our important belongings are which might be related to the web is critically vital, whether or not it’s important infrastructure, IoT, or cloud. And there are some nice business friends right here right this moment that acquired awards. I personally, I give the gratitude to my group, our prospects, and the connection that collectively we have now to beat the unhealthy guys.”
“It feels nice to be acknowledged and reinforces the sensation of pleasure in supporting and securing our nation,” mentioned Drew Schnabel, vice chairman, U.S. Authorities Options, at Zscaler. He additionally shouted out Hansang Bae, Zscaler’s public sector chief technologist, who additionally joined the 2025 class of Cyber Defenders. “He’s improbable … and we’re all studying from him,” Schnabel mentioned.
“It’s nice to get some exterior recognition on what Axonius Federal is doing proper,” mentioned Tom Kennedy, vice chairman and common supervisor at Axonius Federal Techniques. He shared the credit score with Emily Burdeshaw, the corporate’s Director of Federal Advertising and marketing, and the Axonius advertising and marketing group who Kennedy mentioned are “improbable” on getting the corporate out into the market.
“It’s an honor to be acknowledged, it feels nice,” mentioned Steve Hoffman, president at Fortinet Federal. “This can be a collaborative effort,” he emphasised, including, “it’s not only a recognition of Fortinet Federal, it’s our companions that we go to market with and our prospects which might be making an attempt to satisfy their mission necessities.”
