Coalfire’s GuardianAI Open Framework Wins 2026 CSO Award for Advancing Secure AI Adoption

CHICAGO – Coalfire, a global cybersecurity and compliance services leader, today announced it has been named a winner of the 2026 CSO Awards for its GuardianAI framework, which helps organizations securely adopt artificial intelligence while addressing the growing gap between rapid AI innovation and the security, governance, and compliance controls required to deploy AI responsibly. Developed as a security-led engineering framework, GuardianAI embeds trust, security, and compliance into AI systems by design, enabling organizations to innovate with confidence.

The CSO Awards recognize organizations for security projects and initiatives demonstrating outstanding business value and thought leadership.

Coalfire’s GuardianAI framework was recognized for helping organizations embed trust, security, and compliance directly into AI architectures and workflows, enabling enterprises to innovate with confidence while maintaining strong security and regulatory alignment. “This year’s award winners show how security teams have repositioned themselves as strategic business enablers,” said Beth Kormanik, Content Director of the CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference. “They tackle business challenges by leveraging new technology and ideas and delivering detailed planning and strong execution. Their organizations are stronger for these efforts that protect revenue continuity, improve resilience, and strengthen compliance. We congratulate them and look forward to celebrating them at the CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference."

As enterprises accelerate adoption of generative AI, AI agents, and agent-driven workflows, security leaders face new challenges integrating these technologies into real business operations without introducing unacceptable security, privacy, or compliance risk. Modern AI systems expand the attack surface through persistent memory, autonomous decision-making, and cross-system orchestration, creating new requirements for governance, auditability, and runtime protection.

GuardianAI is not a commercial product, but an open framework developed as Coalfire’s contribution to advancing secure and responsible AI adoption across the industry. The framework provides practical engineering guidance that security and engineering teams can apply to real AI systems. Coalfire also works with organizations to implement and operationalize these practices as part of broader AI security and trust programs.

“Winning the CSO Award for GuardianAI is a significant milestone for Coalfire and for every organization striving to harness the transformative potential of AI safely and responsibly,” said Karen Laughton, Executive Vice President of Advisory Services at Coalfire. “Security should accelerate innovation, not impede it. GuardianAI embodies our commitment to being the trusted partner that empowers our clients to advance with confidence, ensuring their AI investments are resilient, compliant, and secure.”

Coalfire will be formally recognized at the CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference May 11-13, 2026, at the Loews Nashville Vanderbilt Plaza.

To learn more about GuardianAI and  Coalfire’s AI Security and Trust services, visit: coalfire.com/services/advisory/ai-security-and-trust-engineering

About Coalfire

Coalfire, headquartered in Chicago, Ill., is a global services and solutions company that specializes in cyber advisory, assessment, and security. The company also develops cutting-edge technology platforms that automate defenses against security threats for the world's leading enterprises, cloud providers, and SaaS companies. Coalfire is the foremost provider of FedRAMP compliance assessments and penetration testing services in the United States.

For more information, visit www.coalfire.com and follow LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

Media Contacts

Corey Eldridge 
Force4 Technology Communications  
Corey@force4.co

Coalfire
PR@coalfire.com

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About the CSO Awards and CSO Hall of Fame Award Inductees

The CSO Awards recognize organizations for security projects and initiatives demonstrating outstanding business value and thought leadership. The CSO Hall of Fame honors leaders who have significantly contributed to advancing information risk management and security. Inductees exemplify the qualities of leadership and excellence and, by their example, contribute to improving security across all organizations. Award winners are honored at the CSO Cybersecurity Awards & Conference.

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