Innovation in the Old Line State: the Maryland Cybersecurity Awards.

On Tuesday, March 27th, 2018, the Cybersecurity Association of Maryland (CAMI) met for its second annual awards celebration. Convening again at Baltimore's Visionary Art Museum at Federal Hill beside the Inner Harbor, Maryland Cybersecurity celebrated some of the state's leading innovators and practitioners in information security.

The association's Executive Director Stacey Smith directed the evening's ceremonies, assisted by presenting sponsors PNC Bank and Point 3 Security. Jay Turakhia (Vice President, Commercial Relationship Manager, Greater Maryland Market) represented PNC, and Point 3 was represented by its founder and CEO, Evan Dornbush. CAMI Board Chair Gina Abate of Edwards Performance Solutions joined Stacey at the podium and introduced Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger and Governor Larry Hogan who both offered video welcome messages and congratulations to the companies and individuals in attendance. 

The judges who decided the evening's awards included Jackie Albright (Assistant Director, Emerging Technology Centers), Angie Barnett (President & CEO, Better Business Bureau Greater Maryland), Mark Cruz (Business Development Account Executive, Tower Federal Credit Union), Ken Ferderer (Managing Partner, InnoVacient), Pete Gouldmann (Cybersecurity Risk Management, US Government), Sarah Horne (Corporate Recruiter, Allegis), Brian Hubbard (Director of Commercial Strategic Business Unit, Edwards Performance Solutions), Rick Kohr (Founding Member & CEO, Evergreen Advisors), Ken McCreedy (Sr Director, Division of Cyber and Aerospace, Maryland Department of Commerce), Mark Miraglia (Program Manager, Cyber Security,Maryland Department of Commerce), Tom Quinn (Chief Information Security Officer, T. Rowe Price), Doug Schmidt (Partner, Chessiecap Securities), LaToya Staten (Chief Strategic Officer, Connected2Tech), Tammi Thomas (Vice President of Marketing, TEDCO), Deb Tillett (President & Executive Director, Emerging Technology Centers), Janon Veach (Director of Business Development, KatzAbosch), and Spencer Wilcox (Director of Operational Technology CyberSecurity, Exelon).

This year's awards again fell into regional and general categories. 

Regional Awards.

Anne Arundel County honored Bridges, the Hanover-based company that provides cybersecurity and big data solutions for government and commercial customers. Bridges' cybersecurity services include consulting, network security and management, vulnerability testing, incident response, and insider threat management.

From Baltimore County, Syncopated Engineering was chosen for recognition. The company's cognitive radio and fog analytic accelerator (this with many IoT security use cases) are its flagship offerings. 

Baltimore City recognized Sally Kenyon Grant from Point 3 Security. Point 3 has a hands-on, gamified approach to cybersecurity and technical education that's won widespread recognition. 

The best of Frederick County turned out to be Patriot Technologies, specialists in the technical and security aspects of logistics, whose solutions are tailored to government and commercial customers, and which find application in all transportation modes. 

Howard County's honoree was En|Veil, the company that protects data in use by enabling the data to be used without the necessity of decrypting it. This provides an unprecedented level of data security, and it does so at scale. 

And, as best of Montgomery County, KoolSpan was chosen. KoolSpan secures Android and iPhone calls and messages with end-to-end encryption: security without loss of clarity or convenience. 

General Awards.

The People's Choice Award, sponsored by Gula Tech Adventures and selected by online voting over the past several weeks, went to Dr. Emma Garrison Alexander, of the University of Maryland University College. As vice dean of cybersecurity and information assurance in the Graduate School at University of Maryland University College, she's had a very positive impact on the students who've been prepared for the cybersecurity workforce at UMUC.

The Cybersecurity Industry Resource Award went to the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation in recognition of its work in nurturing innovation and cultivating a favorable business environment for cybersecurity.

The Cybersecurity Champion of the Year Award went to Ellen Hemmerly, of bwtech@UMBC, the incubator at Research and Technology Park that's done much to bring young companies to maturity, and that's been particularly influential in establishing relationships between Maryland and international partners in cybersecurity.  

The Cybersecurity Company to Watch is Cyber Crucible, based in Severna Park. Cyber Crucible specializes in automated intrusion detection and analysis. 

The Cybersecurity Defender of the Year is CSIOS Corporation, a veteran-owned small business that provides full-spectrum cyberspace operations to US Federal agencies. 

The Cybersecurity Innovator of the Year Award went to Howard County's best, En|Veil, specialists in protecting data at rest, and surely a company to watch closely.

And we're pleased to say that the Cybersecurity Diversity Award went to us, The CyberWire, in recognition of our diversity efforts and our Women in Cyber program. Thanks very much to Maryland Cyber for the honor, and special congratulations to our Social Media Editor and Community Outreach Director Jennifer Eiben for her long and patient work in this area.