Cyber Security Professional of the Year.
Behind most defended systems sits one practitioner who did the unglamorous work well, and did it for years. This category honours that person, and the panel scores the craft, not the job title.
The 2026 Professional of the Year
Prof. Victor Chang holds the Chair of Business Analytics at Aston Business School, Aston University. He was named Cyber Security Professional of the Year in 2026 for work that reaches well beyond the page: cybersecurity frameworks that protect data centres across several countries, privacy-preserving AI in clinical use, and a mentoring record that has shaped early-career researchers across six continents.
A decade of winners sits in the Hall of Fame.
What the panel scores against
The criteria reward applied craft over reputation. Judges read for technical depth that holds up to scrutiny, for work that others have adopted or built upon, and for outcomes that can be checked against a named system, paper or programme. A nomination that names the problem, the contribution, and what changed because of it will always travel further than one that lists certifications.
The panel also weighs how a professional lifts others. The field is short of skilled people, so evidence that a nominee taught, mentored or opened a door for someone else counts as part of the work, not a footnote to it.
What a winning record looks like
Strong nominations in this category show a contribution and its reach. A defence designed once and now running in places its author never visited. A method published and then used by teams who have never met the person who wrote it. A junior analyst who is now senior because someone took the time. The professional’s fingerprints are on the change, and the evidence is checkable.
Weak nominations describe a role. Years served, tools mastered, a title earned. The panel reads past the CV and looks for the specific work only this person did, and what that work produced for the people it protects.
How it relates to the other individual categories
The 2026 restructure set five individual honours side by side, and they sort cleanly by where a person’s impact lands. Professional rewards the craft itself, the technical work done well over time. The Leader award honours the person who sets a team’s direction. The Rising Star recognises early-career promise already showing in outcomes. Influencer and Advocate cover those who change minds and widen the door. A practitioner can fit more than one; nominate them where the evidence is strongest.
Cyber Security Professional of the Year
Who can be nominated as Cyber Security Professional?
Any practitioner whose technical work has raised the standard of the field and who can show the outcomes of it. Title and seniority are not the test; depth and evidence of impact are.
How is Professional different from Leader?
Professional rewards the craft itself, the applied technical work done well over time. Leader honours the person who sets the direction and builds the team. The same person can qualify for both; nominate them where the evidence is clearest.
When was the category introduced?
In the 2026 restructure of the programme, which organised the awards into five individual categories and five organisational ones.
Who won Cyber Security Professional of the Year in 2026?
Prof. Victor Chang, Chair of Business Analytics at Aston Business School, Aston University, recognised for cybersecurity frameworks in use across several countries and a long record of mentoring researchers.
How is recognition decided?
In every category, nominations are read in full and recognition is judged on merit. It is never bought.