People and organisations working in the cyber security sector took home five of the thirteen prizes, including the big three awards. ‘Company of the Year’ went to Secure Thingz, ‘Contribution to Industry’ was awarded to Professor Paul Dorey from CSO Confidential, and Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System won ‘Product of the Year’.
Commenting on taking home the Company of the Year award, Haydn Povey, CEO and founder of Secure Thingz, said, “I am extremely proud and honoured to have received the TechWorks Company of the Year award for all the team at Secure Thingz and IAR Systems. This is further proof that we are on the right track in our mission of making security available for all and transform the embedded industry into a security-first mindset.”
Secure Thingz was founded in 2016, is a partner to Arm and last year gained significant backing from IAR Systems. It enables organisations to implement straightforward, scalable and sustainable security from a device’s inception.
Speaking at the event, TechWorks’ CEO, Alan Banks said of Secure Thingz that it was “an exemplar [that] symbolise[s] the ever increasing value of technology to our economy, industry and society”.
He added, “We look for a company that’s universally admired for its practice and dedication to success. [Secure Thingz is] a UK success story.”
In presenting the 'Contribution to Industry' award, Banks described Professor Dorey as a “true champion to the industry”, and highlighted Dorey’s “outstanding leadership and flair [to] campaign and drive best practice over time.”
Professor Paul Dorey has been a key player in information security for over 25 years. He has provided consultancy to numerous governments, run global strategy, security and risk management functions for BP, Morgan Grenfell and Barclays Bank, sat on the Permanent Stakeholders Group of the European Network Information Security Agency (ENISA), and co-founded the Jericho Forum and the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP).
This is the second year in a row that a cyber security expert has won the Contribution to Industry Prize, with Peter Davies of Thales e-Security taking the prize in 2018.
Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System is a self-learning cyber AI technology that detects novel attacks and insider threats at an early stage. The company modeled its technology on the human immune system, enabling it to spot the subtle signals of an advanced attack — without relying on rules, signatures, or prior assumptions.
In addition to these, the sensor tech start-up Nanusens was the only company to take home two awards: Disruptive Technology, and Emerging Technology Company of the Year.
The full list of winners is:
- Company of the Year Award – Secure Thingz
- Contribution to Industry Award – Professor Paul Dorey, CSO Confidential
- Product of the Year Award – Darktrace, Enterprise Immune System
- Disruptive Innovation Award – Nanusens
- Emerging Technology Company of the Year Award – Nanusens
- Automotive Electronics Innovation & Excellence Award – Blu Wireless
- IoT Security Foundation Champion Award – Signify
- Manufacturing Site of the Year Award – Diodes Inc (Oldham site)
- Manufacturing Supplier of the Year Award (based on industry survey) – Compugraphics International
- R&D Excellence Award - Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult
- Young Engineer of the Year award – Gethn Pickard, Plessey Semiconductors
- Cyber Student of the Year in Automotive Award – Angela Mison, University of South Wales
- UKESF Scholar of the Year Award – Hugo McNally, University of Southampton/On Semiconductors
The TechWorks Awards have run annually since 2001.
