Congratulations to the top MSRC 2025 Q4 security researchers!

/ By Madeline Eckert / January 5, 2026

Congratulations to all the researchers recognized in this quarter’s Microsoft Researcher Recognition Program leaderboard! Thank you to everyone for your hard work and continued partnership to secure customers.

The top three researchers of the 2025 Q4 Security Researcher Leaderboard are: Vaisha Bernard of Eye Security (eye.security), Lakshmi Vignesh S, and Anonymous.

Check out the full list of researchers recognized this quarter here.

Congratulations to the top Azure researchers this quarter: Matthew Jensen, P1hcn, and Vaisha Bernard of Eye Security (eye.security).

Congratulations to the top Office researchers this quarter: wh1tc@Kunlun lab& devoke & Zhiniang Peng with HUST, Boolgombear, and 0x140ce.

Congratulations to the top Windows researchers this quarter: Anonymous, Anonymous, and Angelboy (@scwuaptx).

Congratulations to the top Dynamics researchers this quarter: Vaisha Bernard of Eye Security (eye.security), Brad Schlintz (nmdhkr), and Hà Anh Hoàng.

This 2025 Q4 leaderboard reflects point values for cases that are assessed by the MSRC team between October 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025.

While Researcher Recognition points have been part of MSRC’s reward program for many years, this year marks the first time they are visible in the researcher portal. This added transparency allows you to track your standing more easily throughout the year and reach out should you have any questions if you have questions about your points totals prior to leaderboard publication. If assessment criteria are updated, your points may be adjusted accordingly, which could affect your quarterly score.

Past quarterly and annual leaderboard announcements:

Keep up the awesome work and we look forward to seeing you next quarter!

Madeline Eckert, MSRC