Contributing to the Cyber Conversation

Each year since 2020, AFCEA International’s The Cyber Edge Writing Award, sponsored by MANTECH, has asked thought leaders, subject matter experts and passionate civilians to join the conversation on cybersecurity and national security in hopes of inspiring innovation.

With a different cyber-related theme each year, writers must think outside the box and offer solutions to some of the most complex issues facing the nation.

The theme this year is “Securing the AI-Driven Future: Defense and Offense in the Age of Generative Intelligence.” The contest judges are looking for articles that explore the complexities of combining artificial intelligence with cybersecurity strategies and suggest the best way to navigate the emerging technology landscape.

Evans Mugari, the first-place winner of last year’s contest, said having an original idea is key.

Mugari won with his article “Kyivstar Cyber Attack: A Deep Dive into Cyber Warfare in Ukraine,” which explored how cyber warfare is shaping modern conflict, especially in Ukraine, where digital infrastructure has become a frontline target.

“I wanted also to show that cybersecurity is not just technical, but it's geopolitical and simply human,” Mugari said in an interview with SIGNAL Media.

Mugari is a teacher in Zimbabwe and said he wants to teach people that cybersecurity is no longer an option; it’s critical to national defense.

Samuel Richman, an associate principal solution architect at Red Hat who won first place in 2024 and second place in 2021, said he’s a mission-focused person, and if his ideas can affect change, it’s worth putting his work out there.

Richman’s first-place piece, “The Great Overcomplication,” explained that starting with simple solutions is better than jumping to a complex solution first, then working backward.

“We need to start simple, predictable, especially when it comes to safety-critical and defense system focus, where any level of uncertainty and complexity that doesn’t need to be there can literally cost lives,” Richman said.

After winning and publishing “The Great Overcomplication,” Richman created a presentation on the same topic and was invited to speak at a BSides security conference. This gave him the confidence to deliver another talk at the same conference a year later.

Richman also said he was happy to meet other winners of The Cyber Edge Writing Award at the award ceremony, and overall, the experience has helped him expand his network and portfolio.

Cmdr. Clay Robinson, USN (Ret.), an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Naval Community College and strategic planner with COLSA Corporation, entered the contest from a different perspective and wants to encourage others to do so as well.

Robinson explained that he doesn’t have a purely cyber background, but he was able to apply his expertise to a topic adjacent to the cyber theme. He said he used cross-competency awareness to understand where the cybersecurity issues intersected with his knowledge of naval history and gray-zone warfare, which resulted in his second-place article, “Robotic Pawns: Unmanned Surface Vessels and Gray-Zone Warfare,” in 2023.

“It was more from the standpoint of an operator or a strategician looking at what sort of problems or dilemmas does this create for us, and how can we get ahead of them?” Robinson said of his article. “And maybe in the future, someone will read one of these articles, and it'll give them an idea for something that we might be able to do offensively, a way for us to leverage a bit of gray-zone warfare ourselves.”

Since writing for SIGNAL Media, Robinson has published articles with the Center for International Maritime Security and the Marine Corps Gazette, and he said he has enjoyed showing his students his work.

Richman urges writers not to be afraid of submitting their ideas.

“I feel like it can benefit the mission [to say] things that maybe people aren't used to hearing or that can be challenging in a good way,” Richman shared.

Learn more about The Cyber Edge Writing Award 2026 submission guidelines and rules, and submit your article by February 23, 2026.