2026 CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference: Security Leadership, Innovation & Strategy
Meaningful Outcomes from top CISOs
The CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference brought senior security leaders together for a highly interactive, peer-driven experience focused on navigating today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape and delivering real-world business outcomes. The event combined forward-looking insights, practical strategies, and award-winning case studies—culminating in the celebration of organizations driving measurable impact and innovation in cybersecurity.
Top takeaways included:
- Risk Planning Must Keep Pace with Change: Security leaders are adopting more adaptive, real-time approaches to risk as threats evolve faster than traditional governance models.
- AI Compliance ≠ Security: Even “compliant” AI systems can introduce significant exposure—demanding new, operational defense strategies beyond policy and checklists.
- Proven Impact Matters: Award-winning programs showcased how strong execution and innovation can deliver measurable business value and reduce risk.
- AI Is Expanding Security Debt: AI-assisted development is accelerating vulnerability backlogs, pushing CISOs to rethink and modernize the secure software development lifecycle (SDLC).
- Human Risk Requires Behavior Change: Leading organizations are shifting from checkbox training to behavior-driven models that meaningfully reduce human-driven risk.
CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference in Action
What the CSO Awards Reveal
Call for nominations for 2027 CSO Awards and Hall of Fame are now open
CSO Hall of Fame
CSO Awards
The CSO Awards recognize security initiatives that delivered measurable results and not just innovation in isolation — across areas such as AI compliance and enterprise risk accountability
Entries for both the CSO Awards and Hall of Fame nominees are evaluated through a rigorous, peer-informed process designed to reflect the real scrutiny security leaders face from boards, regulators, and the business.
Rather than standing apart from the conference, award-recognized work is integrated throughout the agenda as case studies and discussion anchors, providing practical insight into how strategy, execution, and leadership translate into outcomes under pressure.
CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference 2026 Speakers
Featured Speaker
Yinka Badmus is a cybersecurity and risk executive at Uber, where she leads global security risk and compliance. She is redefining how global, technology-driven organizations manage risk in an environment shaped by hybrid human and agentic workforces and rapidly evolving, AI-driven threats. Her approach moves beyond static controls to adaptive, context-aware, and operationalized risk frameworks that drive risk-based control decisions across high-impact engineering workflows—operating at the speed of the business.
With over 30 years of experience, including a decade in executive leadership, her work drives measurable improvements in security culture, regulatory readiness, and organizational resilience at scale. Prior to Uber, Yinka held senior leadership roles at Equifax, Visa Inc., and IBM. She lives in Milton, Georgia, with her husband and twin daughters.
