Roman Medina, chief information security officer at San Antonio-based Jefferson Bank, has received a 2023 Top Global CISOs Award, sponsored annually by Cyber Defense Magazine. Chief information security officers are the first responders of cyberspace as they fend off cyber criminals, cyber terrorists, malicious insiders and nation-state-sponsored attacks.

Medina competed against thousands of candidates for the honor. Judges searched for the most innovative information security officers with unparalleled success in communicating with their boards and senior-level executives, detecting and stopping breaches and data loss, complying with regulations and building powerful risk-reduction programs for their organizations.

“We’re pleased to name Roman Medina as a winner among a small, elite group of information security professionals of our Top Global CISOs Awards for 2023 celebrating with them at CyberDefenseCon 2023,” says Gary Miliefsky, publisher of Cyber Defense magazine.

This is Cyber Defense Magazine’s 11th year of honoring cybersecurity innovators—in this case, the top global CISOs for 2023—on its Cyber Defense Awards platform. Judges for this award include cybersecurity industry veterans, trailblazers and market makers Gary Miliefsky of CDMG, Dr. Lindsey Polley de Lopez of VentureScope, Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of Allegis Cyber and Dino Boukouris of MomentumCyber, as well as emeritus judges Robert Herjavec of Cyderes, Dr. Peter Stephenson of CDMG and David DeWalt of NightDragon.

The full list of recipients of the 2023 Top Global CISOs Award can be viewed here.