Achievements and Awards

OWASP recognizes the significant work that our volunteer community contributes regularly to help OWASP achieve its mission and remain a world leader in application security. OWASP grants financial and non-financial awards based on merit and community involvement. The following are current OWASP award initiatives:

WASPY

Each year there are many individuals who do amazing work, dedicating countless hours to share, improve, and strengthen the OWASP mission. Some of these individuals are well known to the community while others are not. The purpose of these awards is to bring recognition to those who “FLY UNDER THE RADAR”. These are the individuals who are passionate about OWASP, who contribute hours of their own free time to the organization to help improve the cyber-security world, yet seem to go unrecognized.

Distinguished Lifetime Memberships

Awarded by the Board for outstanding involvement in the organization over the course of many years.

Distinguished Lifetime Membership Awards

2023


  • OWASP Distinguished Lifetime Award

    • Simon Bennetts   Simon Bennetts

    • Ricardo Pereira   Ricardo Pereira

    • Rick Mitchell   Rick Mitchell

    • Jim Manico   Jim Manico

2021


  • OWASP Distinguished Lifetime Award

    • Dave Wichers   Dave Wichers
      See his interview here

    • Fiona Collins   Fiona Collins

    • Jeff Williams   Jeff Williams
      See his interview here

    • Mark Curphey   Mark Curphey

    • Matteo Meucci   Matteo Meucci

WASPY Awards

2022


  • Chapter Person of the Year

    • Thomas Ljungberg Kristensen   Thomas Ljungberg Kristensen
      Thomas has been developing secure software since graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from Aarhus University in 2006. He has created and tested software, tools and processes in and for large corporations in the finance, energy, and military sectors. Thomas currently runs his independent security consulting firm, WelcomeSecurity based in Silkeborg, Denmark, where he helps people and businesses view security as a business enabler and a value improvement instead of a cost and a pain – To welcome security in software development!
      Since 2019, Thomas has been an active volunteer with the OWASP Aarhus, Denmark, chapter as co-chapter lead trying to make people aware of the excellent free resources from OWASP and providing a meeting place for people to talk about it-security and to network.


  • Event Person of the Year

    • Izar Tarandach   Izar Tarandach
      Izar Tarandach is the Principal Security Engineer at Squarespace, a published author and presenter on Threat Modeling. With past tenures in leadership security positions at Autodesk, in a major hedge fund, DellEMC, RSA, IBM and others, he was a core contributor to SAFECode and a founding contributor to the IEEE Center for Security Design. He holds a masters degree in Computer Science/Security from Boston University and has served as an instructor in Digital Forensics and in Secure Development in grad-level courses. He co-leads the development of pytm, a threat-modeling-with-code OWASP Incubator project.


  • Project Person of the Year

    • Nancy Gariche   Nancy Gariche
      Nancy is a Senior Developer Advocate for the GitHub Security Lab, where she helps security researchers and developers collaborate and communicate better. In her spare time co-leads the OWASP DevSlop Project and is a member of the AWS Community Builder group. Nancy was named one of the Top 20 Women Leaders in Cyber in Canada, 2021.

2021


  • Outstanding Project - OWASP ZAP

    • ZAP   ZAP
      See Simon (psiinon) and Rick’s interview here

    • Rick Mitchell (kingthorin)   Rick Mitchell (kingthorin)
      Rick’s focus on Web Application Security represents more than half of his 20+ year IT career. You may know him for his work as a co-lead of the ZAP project, however Rick can also be credited for his contributions to the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), Web Security Testing Guide (WSTG), Vulnerable Web Applications Directory (VWAD), and OWASP community content. Rick is a security assessment and testing trainer for part of his work, a lightning talk presenter at the Ottawa OWASP chapter meetings and AppSec USA, OWASP Ottawa volunteer, and has helped with project promotion assessments during previous AppSec USA conferences. Rick enjoys helping others learn and challenge themselves, and strongly believes that together we can and do make the industry better.

    • Ricardo Pereira   Ricardo Pereira


  • Outstanding Educator

    • Tanya Janca   Tanya Janca
      See interview here


  • Outstanding Community Supporter

    • Tanya Janca   Tanya Janca
      See interview here


  • Oustanding Innovator

    • Bjoern Kimminich   Bjoern Kimminich
      See his interview here

2017


  • Best Innovator

    • Seba Deleersnyder   Seba Deleersnyder


  • Best Mission Outreach

    • Mark Miller   Mark Miller


  • Best Community Supporter

    • Nicole Becher   Nicole Becher

    • Dinis Cruz   Dinis Cruz

    • Jeremy Long   Jeremy Long

2016


  • Global/Growing Category

    • Kathy Thaxton   Kathy Thaxton


  • Innovation/Sharing Category

    • Owen Pendlebury   Owen Pendlebury


  • Integrity/Learning Category

    • Eoin Keary   Eoin Keary


  • Open/Leading Category

    • Dinis Cruz   Dinis Cruz

2015


  • Global/Growing for the United States Region

    • Jerry Hoff   Jerry Hoff


  • Global/Growing for the Latin American Region

    • John Vargas   John Vargas


  • Global/Growing for the European Region

    • Jason Alexander   Jason Alexander


  • Global/Growing for the Asia/Pacific/Middle East Region

    • John Patrick Lita   John Patrick Lita


  • Global/Growing for the African Region

    • Munir Njiru   Munir Njiru


  • Innovation/Sharing Category for the United States Region

    • Jeremy Long   Jeremy Long


  • Innovation/Sharing Category for the Latin American Region

    • Diego Ademir   Diego Ademir


  • Innovation/Sharing Category for the European Region

    • Fiona Collins   Fiona Collins


  • Innovation/Sharing Category for the Africa Region

    • Munir Njiru   Munir Njiru


  • Integrity/Learning Category for the Caribbean Region

    • Johanna Curiel   Johanna Curiel


  • Integrity/Learning Category for the Asia/Pacific/Middle East Region

    • John Patrick Lita   John Patrick Lita


  • Integrity/Learning Category for the United States Region

    • Pedro Peralta   Pedro Peralta


  • Integrity/Learning Category for the European Region

    • OWASP Student Chapters Program Leaders (Antonis Manaras & Mateo Martinez)   OWASP Student Chapters Program Leaders (Antonis Manaras & Mateo Martinez)


  • Open/Leading Category for the Caribbean Region

    • Johanna Curiel   Johanna Curiel


  • Open/Leading Category for the Latin American Region

    • Mateo Martinez   Mateo Martinez


  • Open/Leading Category for the United States Region

    • Jeremiah Grossman   Jeremiah Grossman


  • Open/Leading Category for the European Region

    • Eoin Keary   Eoin Keary

2014


  • Best Platform Supporter

    • Johanna Curiel   Johanna Curiel


  • Best New Community Supporter

    • AppSecAPAC 2014 Team   AppSecAPAC 2014 Team


  • Best Mission Outreach

    • AppSecUSA 2013 Team   AppSecUSA 2013 Team


  • Best Project Leader

    • Simon Bennetts   Simon Bennetts


  • Best Chapter Leader

    • Japan Chapter Leaders   Japan Chapter Leaders

2013


  • Best Innovator

    • Abbas Naderi   Abbas Naderi


  • Best Mission Outreach

    • Martin Knobloch   Martin Knobloch


  • Best Community Supporter

    • Fabio Cerullo   Fabio Cerullo


  • Best Project Leader

    • Simon Bennetts   Simon Bennetts


  • Best Chapter Leader

    • Tin Zaw, Richard Greenberg, Kelly Fitzgerald, Stuart Schwarz, & Edward Bonver (LA Chapter Leaders)   Tin Zaw, Richard Greenberg, Kelly Fitzgerald, Stuart Schwarz, & Edward Bonver (LA Chapter Leaders)

2012


  • WASPY Award

    • Helen Gao   Helen Gao
      Helen received a certificate, a $1000 gift card, an iPad and a trophy.
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