Panel chair and editor-in-chief of Secure Computing Magazine Nate Cochrane said the finalists represented the best of breed in IT security.
"It was often a tough choice between the submissions and led to much debate within the panel," Cochrane said. "But certain names kept coming up in conversation as market leaders."

The finalists for the inaugural SC Awards are:
Vendor of the year
Awarded to the vendor that provided the greatest value across its solutions.
- Websense
- Fortinet
- Sophos
Product of the year
Awarded to the product that has made a measurable impact on IT security.
- Qualys Qualysguard
- MailMarshal Exchange
- MessageLabs email services
- Symantec Endpoint Protection
- Websense Web Security Gateway
Innovation Award
Awarded to the submission that showed a new way to think about IT security issues.
- Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls
- McAfee Artemis
- ATO vulnerability management team
The winners will be announced on May 19 at the SC Awards Dinner and Presentation at the Royal Pines Resort in conjunction with the AusCERT 2009 conference.
For more information, visit the SC Awards website.