One of the Shiny, Beautiful Trophies

Just over a week ago the good, the awesome and the rockstars of the European blogging scene centred upon the the function room of the Prince of Teck pub in Earls Court for the inaugural European Security Blogger Awards of 2013. The atmosphere had a nervous tension and a strong feeling of anticipation (as well as a few bow ties for some other award going on immediately after that night!). These awards would not have happened if it wasn’t for two gentlemen in particular, namely Jack Daniel (@jack_daniel) and Brian Honan (@brianhonan) and without the sponsorship of Tenable (for the bar) and Qualys (for the trophies themselves). Both of them organised this off their own backs, were extremely gracious hosts and ultimately did this for the betterment of the European infosec community, and I wish to recognise that formally.

Thank you Jack and Brian, and to our sponsors.

But moving onto the awards themselves; after an initial round of blind nominations, the finalists were announced on Saturday 13th April and a no doubt frenzied bout of voting commenced, interspersed by all the finalists vying for your votes. My favourite had to be this one from Kai Roer (@kairoer), someone certainly not known for his modesty!

But aside from my evil twin shamelessly and quite rightly asking for votes (he has a great blog, check him out!) there were regular reminders and links from Brian and Jack to get voting and many retweets. I’m not sure how many votes were cast but I imagine they were well into the hundreds.

And so the night came, and after a day at Infosecurity Europe just over the road, and the practising of our “disappointed we didn’t win but SO happy for the winner” faces, it was down to Jack to announce the nominees and winner. They are listed below, but before that I want to move onto the tip I promised in the title…

Below are links to some of the smartest minds in our industry, and not only that, but they are willing to share their knowledge with you, for free. In any industry that is a rare gift to be given so I would like to encourage everyone who reads this to visit some of these blogs and follow them on Twitter, and also actively participate in the discussions, opinions and (dare I say it) thought leadership that is being presented. As a blogger myself I know the thrill of discussing a topic with someone, whether they agree with me or not. If you disagree with something that is being said, then politely and respectfully say so and put your point across. Even a simple message of support or a ‘Like’ means these people are going to be more likely to continue to blog and share their ideas with you in the future. And of course, if you think you can do better we would welcome you with open arms; this is not an exclusive club.

And so, without further ado, and a final thank you to Brian and Jack, here are the results of the European Security Blogger Awards 2013!

Best Corporate Security Blog
Malware Must Die
Sophos Naked Security Blog  < WINNER!
F-Secure Labs Blog
Countermeasures
SecurityWatch
SCRT Information Security
Cyberis Blog
Security for UK Legal Professionals
Holistic Security Blog
Securelist

Best Security Podcast
Finux Tech Weekly 
Eurotrash Security Podcast  < WINNER!

Best Security Video Blog
Christian008
Info Cynic < WINNER!
Security Tube

Best Personal Security Blog
Chat Back Security
Neira Jones
/Dev/Random
Pentest-n00b
The Roer Information Security Blog
SecurityWatch
Make IT compliant – Security and Compliance
Naked Security
Thom Langford  < WINNER!

Most Entertaining Blog
The Gentleman Hackers Club
Info Cynic  < WINNER!
Sophos Naked Security Blog
Holistic Security Blog

Most Educational Blog
Sophos Naked Security Blog
Infosec Cynic
HTML5 Security
Security Watch  < WINNER!
Securelist
Holistic Security Blog
Professor Alan Woodward Blog
Offensive Coder
Bruce Hallas 

Best New Security Blog
Jitender’s blog
Advent IM Security For Schools
Chatback Security
Marlin Brighton Blog
Dave Waterson on Security  < WINNER!

Best EU Security Tweeter
@rik_ferguson < WINNER!
@jameslyne
@_securitycat
@ChrisJohnRiley
@quentynblog
@j4vv4d
@brianhonan
@xme
@securityspeak
@gcluley
@n0x00
@0x6D6172696F
@mikko

Grand Prix Prize for the Best Overall Security Blog
Sophos Naked Security Blog < WINNER!
Infosec Cynic
F-Secure
Security Watch
Light Blue Touchpaper
Holistic Security Blog
Didier Steven’s Blog
Bruce Hallas 

If you made it this far you may have noticed I was very honoured and pleasantly surprised to have won Best Personal Security Blog, and against some real industry heavyweights too. My thanks to all of those that voted for me, it means the world to me.