IBM has announced it has been named Best Security Company by SC Magazine. The award, recognizing IBM's leadership in IT and its outstanding security solutions, was presented last week at the SC Awards Gala, held in conjunction with the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco.

For nearly 50 years, IBM has helped businesses and governments secure their critical infrastructures with solutions that go beyond just collections of niche products. IBM's customers rely on the most comprehensive security solutions and services addressing compliance mandates, applications, data, identity and access management, networks, threat prevention, systems security, email, encryption, virtualization and cloud security.

"With the Best Security Company Award, our judges have recognized IBM as a leader in the constant battle to protect businesses, customers and data," said Illena Armstrong, editor-in-chief, SC Magazine. "IBM is at the forefront of helping companies meet the evolving security challenges of today."

Through an end-to-end approach to security across people and identity, data, applications, infrastructure, compliance and the physical infrastructure, IBM's security capabilities are among the top in the industry.

IBM's excellence in security includes:

• IBM software and services manage more than seven billion security events daily
• The IBM X-Force research and development database tracks more than 48,000 vulnerabilities and advises clients and the general public on how to respond to emerging and critical threats
• 15,000 IBM researchers, developers and subject matter experts from around the world are committed to security initiatives
• IBM monitors and manages the security infrastructures of more than 4,000 customers at IBM Security Operations Centers around the world
• IBM holds more than 3,000 patented inventions that enable clients to secure their business information and processes

IBM and other 2010 Excellence Awards winners were chosen by an expert panel of leading security officers from large, medium and small enterprises from all major vertical markets–representing the wide distribution of SC Magazine readers and breadth of knowledge and experience in the information security industry.

"The convergence of physical and digital infrastructures provides new possibilities, but with those possibilities come new complexities and risks," said Al Zollar, general manager, IBM Tivoli software. "IBM helps clients achieve smarter security while enabling client innovation, and we are honored to be recognized by SC Magazine for our contributions and end to end approach in security."

As the industry's preeminent awards program, the annual SC Awards has recognized security's key contributors and outstanding products for more than a decade. For more information and a detailed list of categories and winners, please visit www.scmagazineus.com/awards.

For more information, visit: www.ibm.com/security.