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Forward Named a Top 25 Most Innovative Cybersecurity Company as Forward Predict Wins Top InfoSec Innovator Award
Forward Predict enables organizations to dramatically reduce security, connectivity, and compliance risk by determining the impact of network changes before execution
SANTA CLARA, Calif., October 27, 2026–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Forward, the leader in safer agentic NetOps and trustworthy autonomous networking at scale, today announced two awards from Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), the industry’s leading electronic information security magazine. The magazine named Forward one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Cybersecurity Companies in the World for 2026 and recognized Forward Predict with the 2026 Top InfoSec Innovator Award for Publisher’s Choice in AI Security and Compliance as part of its 14th Annual InfoSec Awards. Forward Predict is a first-of-its-kind capability that enables organizations to assess the impact of network changes before execution, providing a critical foundation for safe agentic NetOps.
“The most dangerous moment on an enterprise network is when a change accomplishes what it was designed to do, but has an unintended consequence of opening a door nobody meant to open,” said Nikhil Handigol, Chief AI Officer and co-founder of Forward. “Nothing breaks, so nobody notices until there is an incident. And in the post-Mythos era of AI-driven vulnerability discovery, attackers can find and exploit that gap in minutes. Forward Predict closes it. It gives NetOps and SecOps teams the same evidence of what a change will do, and whether it alters security posture in any way they didn’t approve, before the change goes live. As AI agents begin to act on the network, security posture can’t be something you learn about after the fact. It has to be something you prove before you commit.”
Proof Before Network Changes Reach Production
Built on Forward Enterprise’s mathematically accurate digital twin, Forward Predict gives SecOps and NetOps a shared basis for evaluating proposed changes. It compares reachability and isolation before and after change, enabling organizations to confirm that intended connections work and security boundaries hold. This verification provides a critical foundation for agentic NetOps, allowing organizations to assess AI-driven changes before execution.
“We scoured the globe looking for cybersecurity innovators that could make a huge difference and potentially help turn the tide against the exponential growth in cyber-crime. Forward is worthy of being named a winner in these coveted awards and consideration for deployment in your environment,” said Yan Ross, Editor of Cyber Defense Magazine.
