Key Takeaways
- Optery won three Gold Awards at the 2026 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards: Attack Surface Management, Anti‑Phishing, and Human Risk Management.
- The company’s platform uses patented search technology and automated opt‑outs to locate and remove employee personal data from over 640 data‑broker sites, with continuous expansion.
- By reducing exposed personally identifiable information (PII), Optery helps organizations lower phishing risk, limit social‑engineering leverage, and manage human‑centric cyber threats.
- Leadership emphasizes that personal‑data removal is now a core cybersecurity control, directly protecting employees, executives, and their families from targeted attacks.
- Optery’s credibility is reinforced by SOC 2 Type II attestation, multiple industry accolades (PCMag Editors’ Choice, Cyber Defense Magazine awards, Globee® Award), and adoption by hundreds of thousands of individuals and over 1,000 businesses.
Announcement of Award Wins
On April 23, 2026, Optery announced that it had been named a winner in three categories of the 2026 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards: Attack Surface Management, Anti‑Phishing, and Human Risk Management. The awards, organized by Cybersecurity Insiders, honor innovation, leadership, and measurable impact in the global cybersecurity community. Optery’s triple‑crown recognition underscores the growing importance of personal‑data removal as a foundational security control.
How Optery’s Technology Works
Optery combines patented search algorithms with sophisticated opt‑out automation to discover employee personal information posted by data‑broker and people‑search sites. The platform continuously scans the web, identifies exposed profiles, and executes removal requests at scale. Each remediation effort is validated with before‑and‑after screenshots, providing tangible proof of data clearance for internal audit and compliance purposes.
Scale and Coverage of Data‑Broker Removals
Currently, Optery supports automated removals for more than 640 data‑broker sites and over 1,000 total sites when custom removal requests are included. The company’s coverage is continually expanding as new brokers emerge and existing ones update their data‑sharing practices. This breadth ensures that the vast majority of exposed employee PII can be targeted for remediation, reducing the attack surface available to threat actors.
Impact on Phishing and Social Engineering
By eliminating readily accessible personal details such as home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and familial information, Optery directly curtails the intelligence attackers rely on for phishing campaigns and other social‑engineering tactics. Fewer data points mean lower success rates for credential‑theft attempts, business‑email‑compromise scams, and targeted ransomware lures that hinge on personalized pretexts.
Managing Human Risk Through Data Minimization
Human risk management focuses on the behaviors and attributes that make individuals susceptible to cyber threats. Optery’s approach reduces the exploitable personal data that threat actors can harvest to craft convincing attacks against employees, executives, and their families. This proactive data minimization lowers the likelihood of doxxing, harassment, identity fraud, and even physical threats that stem from online exposure.
Leadership Perspectives on the Award
Paul Mander, Optery’s Chief Commercial Officer & GM of Optery for Business, expressed gratitude for the recognition, stating that exposed employee personal data provides attackers with the intelligence needed to target people and organizations. He emphasized that Optery’s continuous exposure‑reduction at scale helps minimize that risk.
Karthik Ramesh, Optery’s CISO, added that security leaders prioritize personal‑data removal because it directly reduces risk to both employees and the broader organization by preventing targeted attacks and lowering their volume. He highlighted Optery’s thorough discovery and removal process as a key differentiator in the market.
Industry Validation from the Awards Organizer
Holger Schulze, founder of Cybersecurity Insiders and organizer of the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, congratulated Optery on earning Gold Awards in the three categories. He noted that the winners are selected by an independent jury of cybersecurity practitioners, analysts, and CISOs, underscoring the credibility of the accolade. Schulze remarked that the recognition highlights the role of innovative security solutions in strengthening cyber posture worldwide.
Background on the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards
Now in its second decade, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards program, presented by Cybersecurity Insiders, celebrates companies, products, and professionals that advance cybersecurity globally. Backed by a community of over 600,000 security professionals, the awards are widely respected for spotlighting innovation, leadership, and contributions that shape the industry’s future. Winning across multiple categories signals sustained excellence and broad impact.
Optery’s Company Overview and Differentiators
Optery positions itself as the first enterprise‑grade provider of a free report that displays dozens of screenshots showing where personal information appears across hundreds of data‑broker sites. It also pioneered a completely self‑service platform for IT teams to find and remove employee PII from the web. Subscription plans automate removals, clearing home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and other personal data at scale.
The service delivers a proactive defense against PII‑based threats such as phishing, social engineering, credential compromise, identity fraud, doxing, and harassment. Optery’s trustworthiness is bolstered by an AICPA SOC 2 Type II security attestation, patented search technology, visual evidence‑based reporting, extensive data‑broker coverage, and API integration options for seamless workflow incorporation.
Recent Accolades and Market Traction
In addition to the 2026 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards, Optery earned PCMag Editors’ Choice honors for personal data removal from 2022 through 2026. It was ranked No. 12 on the 2026 Inc. Regionals: Pacific list of fastest‑growing private companies and received Cyber Defense Magazine’s Market Disruptor Award in Digital Risk Protection.
Other notable recognitions include the Globee® Award for Cybersecurity, Social Engineering (Best of Category) in 2026; the Top InfoSec Innovator Award for Most Innovative Anti‑Phishing from Cyber Defense Magazine in 2025; and the SiliconANGLE TechForward Award in the Digital Risk Protection Platform category for 2025. Optery also secured the Fortress Cybersecurity Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies in 2025 and multiple Cybersecurity Excellence Awards in earlier years for Employee Privacy Protection, Attack Surface Management, and Digital Footprint Management.
Fast Company named Optery among its Next Big Things in Tech for security and privacy in 2023, and the company has been lauded by Cyber Defense Magazine for Attack Surface Management innovations in 2024.
Adoption and Real‑World Impact
Hundreds of thousands of individuals and over 1,000 businesses currently rely on Optery to keep personal information off the Internet and to mitigate attack vectors. By continuously monitoring and removing exposed data, Optery helps organizations maintain a cleaner digital footprint, lower the likelihood of successful phishing attempts, and protect both corporate assets and employee well‑being.
The combination of automated remediation, verifiable proof of removal, and expanding coverage makes Optery a critical component of modern cybersecurity strategies that address the human element of risk. As threat actors increasingly exploit personal data for highly targeted attacks, solutions like Optery’s are becoming indispensable for organizations seeking to harden their defenses and safeguard their people.