The aim of the Cyber OSPAs is to be transparent and credible. In a commitment to this aim, the Cyber OSPAs have set out key ethical guidelines to ensure best practice. The Cyber OSPAs will:
- Publish all the conditions required for entry
- Publish a Judges’ Code of Ethics and require all judges to adhere to the policy during the judging process
- Make the process for selecting the judging panel publicly available and provide routes for public feedback concerning the suitability of judges for inclusion on the Cyber OSPAs panel
- Publish the criteria the Judges use for assessing the awards
- Have a policy which clarifies the role of sponsors
The Judging process
Each judge is a cyber security expert with experience and knowledge of working in the cyber security sector. Judges are sought by nominations from partner organisations. The judges’ mark all entries against the criteria set out in the category requirements (viewable on the ‘Enter’ pages) and the highest scoring entry following the judging will be the winner. Entries are assigned to avoid any conflict of interest. All judges follow a strict code of conduct which can be found below.
Judging Panel Selection Policy
The Cyber OSPAs seeks to represent best practice in security performance and as such is committed to recruiting the best possible panel to review the entries entry and decide upon category winners. As such, the criteria for the judging panel has been set out. The panel must include individuals:
- with experience, knowledge and expertise in business and cyber security
- who are familiar with the country’s security culture
- who have undertaken different roles in different aspects of business and cyber security
- who have a proven business knowledge and have been successful
- who adhere to the Judges’ Code of Ethics
Judges’ Code of Ethics
The Judges Code of Ethics is set out to define the standards required of a Cyber OSPAs judge. This is in order to maintain the core values of integrity and impartiality. There is an obligation on all parties to observe the highest standards of integrity and all judges and officials who act on behalf of the Cyber OSPAs must accept the importance of establishing and maintaining appropriate ethical behaviour. By becoming a judge that person has agreed to the Code of Ethics.
Judicial Independence – Judges must uphold and exemplify independence. Their decisions must not be based on extraneous influences, and they must reject any attempt to influence their decisions.
Integrity – Judges are an integral part of the Cyber OSPAs and therefore must conduct themselves with integrity to ensure they are above reproach in their own business in the view of fair minded, informed people.
Diligence – Judges must commit to providing time to ensure that all entries they receive are judged fairly and are considered equally.
Equality – Judges should carry out their review without discrimination.
Impartiality – Judges should aim to remain impartial in the judging process, and review entries purely based on the quality of the evidence provided to them.
If you have any concerns regarding a Cyber OSPAs judge then please contact us.
Entrants’ code of ethics
The ‘Entrants’ Code of Ethics’ is set out to define the standards required of an Cyber OSPAs participant. This is in order to maintain the values of integrity and impartiality within the awards scheme. Before submitting an entry to the awards the conditions of entry must be read and accepted.
Conditions of entry
- Entries must be submitted through the official form on the website, by email, or through procedures set down by an official Cyber OSPAs partnership organization.
- Entrants must complete the entry form to the best of their ability and must use accurate and honest information. If any information is found to be inaccurate the entrant will be disqualified.
- No alterations may be made to nominations which have been submitted
- A company or individual can enter more than one award category, providing all the requirements are met. The evidence presented in each award category needs to show outstanding performance in that category.
- Any attempt to gain unfair advantage at any point during the process will result in immediate disqualification.
- The Cyber OSPAs judging panel are responsible for awarding the winners of each category. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. The decision of the judges must be respected and by entering the Cyber OSPAs entrants accept this condition.
- All entries to the 2022 Cyber OSPAs must be received before the deadline. Entries received after this time may be disqualified.
- No judge will be permitted to enter as an individual in any category
- Please note that we do not anonymise the entries. Our experience has led us to let the judges see the entry in full so that they can help ensure that no OSPA is awarded to anyone disreputable. That stated, please be assured that judges will mark the entry based only on the information that has been provided. By limiting the entry to short text based answers the Cyber OSPAs aims to create a level playing field where small and large companies can compete fairly. Moreover, we have found that long answers are not necessarily good ones and being required to think about and focus on the information most relevant to the judges can be helpful; it is quality not quantity that we value.
Obligations to the Cyber OSPAs
- Entrants accept that by entering the Cyber OSPAs their entry is subject to scrutiny by the Cyber OSPAs team and the judging panel.
- Entrants must be prepared to submit additional evidence or provide reasonable support for any relevant points raised or answers to any queries that may arise.
- All entrants must accept that all those shortlisted for an Cyber OSPA will be published and company or individual details may be used in pre-event and post-event publications to recognize the awards.
- All those shortlisted are expected to attend the awards ceremony, or send a representative on their behalf who can receive the OSPA if they become a winner on the day.
- The Cyber OSPAs reserves the right to use all or part of the material entered in the competition for promotion of the awards. Under no circumstances shall the organizers be held responsible for the payment of royalties or other charges for the use of materials provided in support of the awards.
- All entries become the Property of the Cyber OSPAs on submission. No entries will be returned.
- Entrants accept that the Cyber OSPAs team reserves the right to not award a category if circumstances deem that necessary.