Meet the hottest security vendors in the world

IT security research body Cybersecurity Ventures has revealed its first-ever Cybersecurity 500, with Nuix and Quintessence Labs the only Australian companies to make it onto the US-dominated "who's hot" list.

Cybersecurity Ventures was careful to point out the honour roll was not based on size or revenue, but was focused on innovation.

"We didn't think a list of the largest cybersecurity companies would be very useful to our target audience of cyber and IT security decision makers, evaluators, and recommenders," Cybersecurity Ventures chief executive Steve Morgan. "They already know who the biggest vendors are."

Californian vendor FireEye topped the charts, with Moka5, AlienVault, and Norse rounding out the top four from the Silicon Valley state.

Israel's CyberArk was the highest ranked non-US company, coming in at number 10. The Czech Republic's AVG was the best European performer at 12th, with Japan's Trend Micro immediately following at number 13.

[Check out the full list of the Cybersecurity 500]

Canberra's QuintessenceLabs ranked 231st, for its claim to be the world's first vendor to "harness the quantum properties of lasers" to deliver cryptography. In March last year, the company was recognised as "Australia's most innovative small company" by the Australian Information Industry Association for fostering a culture of "deep science".

Sydney-headquartered Nuix squeaked in at number 496. It is best known for its patented Nuix Engine – a mechanism for "accessing, understanding and acting on human-generated information", according to the company.

"We’re very pleased to be one of two Australian companies to be included in the Cybersecurity 500," said Nuix chief executive Eddie Sheehy. "Our investigation technology is already used in some of the world’s largest cybersecurity breach investigations but there is much more to come."

Both Australian firms have one or more branches in the United States to further their business interests.

Cybersecurity Ventures stated that the judgment criteria was subjective, based on qualitative feedback from many sources.

"We selected thousands of potential companies for inclusion in the Cybersecurity 500, by soliciting feedback from CISOs and end-user security practitioners, researching hundreds of cybersecurity events on the Cybersecurity Calendar, and researching dozens of Cybersecurity news sources that we follow," said Morgan.

"We are trying to create more awareness and recognition for the most innovative cybersecurity companies – ranging from the largest and most recognisable brands to VC backed start-ups and emerging players."

Morgan founded Cybersecurity Ventures in 1999 after a stint at McAfee during its explosive growth in the late 1990s.