As part of its efforts to encourage IT awareness and adoption in the Indian SMB segment, Microsoft Corporation in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), has announced the annual IT Security Leaders Awards for the SMB segment. The award is instituted to recognise and reward individuals and their companies pioneering security initiatives in the SMB sector across India. The last date for entries/ nominations is 2nd April 2008.

“As Indian SMBs increase their levels of investments in IT, it is equally important to protect data and information, so that SMBs may safeguard their IT investments, and also continue to derive increased productivity and efficiency. We believe it is important to increase awareness in this area, and also bring to fore some of the cost effective yet robust IT security solutions that have been implemented already,” said Rajeev Mittal, General Manager, SMB, Microsoft India.

According to Sivarama Krishnan, Executive Director, PwC, “It is encouraging to see the importance SMBs are already giving to IT security in their company. With this initiative we hope to provide them a platform to share experiences and best practices. We believe that learning from the finest among them is the best way to improve in this extremely important area."

There are four categories of awards under which entries can be registered. 1. Best Overall Security Strategy & Implementation 2. Best Overall Security Strategy & Implementation – with a Microsoft Backbone 3. Best Setup integrating Compliance & Security 4. Best effectiveness in raising IT awareness among employees