Trishneet Arora

A school dropout from Ludhiana who taught himself ethical hacking, started TAC Security at 19, and took it from a one-person operation to a listed cybersecurity company.

Born: 2 November 1993, Ludhiana, Punjab
Country: India
Known for: TAC Security
Role: Founder and CEO

Early life

Trishneet Arora was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, into a middle-class family. His father was a businessman and tax consultant, and his mother a homemaker. His father bought him a computer when he was about 11, and he began teaching himself by taking things apart, watching online tutorials and reading books, often crashing the machine in the process.

Leaving school

Trishneet was not interested in classroom study. He failed Class 8, later tried to continue through distance education, and reportedly failed Class 12 as well. Around the age of 16 or 17 he left formal schooling for good. His parents were unhappy at first but came to support him. According to Grokipedia, at 14 he tested the security of his father's tax-consulting office computer as a learning exercise, and after moving to Chandigarh he picked up more ethical hacking skills from friends who were studying engineering.

First work and police training

At about 18, he began freelance ethical hacking work, checking websites and systems for weaknesses for small local clients. He also gave talks and workshops, and a cybercrime conference led to invitations from senior police officers. He ran training sessions for the Punjab Police Crime Branch in Ludhiana, reportedly taught officers at the police academy in Phillaur, and also worked with the Gujarat Police. News reports at the time described him as a teenager training cops.

Founding TAC Security

In 2013, at 19, he started TAC Security in Chandigarh. Grokipedia says he began on 27 February 2013 with a loan of ₹75,000 from his father. The company began as a one-person firm focused on ethical hacking, vulnerability assessment and training, with a goal of helping train students for cybersecurity careers. He also wrote books on the subject, including The Hacking Era, Hacking Talk with Trishneet Arora and Hacking with Smart Phones.

From services to a product company

In 2016, TAC Security raised pre-Series A funding from the investor Vijay Kedia. In 2017 it won Airtel as its first major enterprise services client and was accredited by CERT-In, India's national cybersecurity agency. In 2018, the company has said, it moved from a services firm to a product business around ESOF, its vulnerability and risk management platform, and set up a US company, TAC Security Inc. It later added a San Francisco office and, in 2025, a Canadian subsidiary, and it has described serving clients across more than 100 countries. Client numbers vary by source, from about 3,000 to 10,000.

Going public

TAC Security, listed as TAC InfoSec on the NSE, went public in April 2024 and is described by Grokipedia as the first pure-play Indian cybersecurity company to list. Business Outreach reports that the IPO was oversubscribed about 422 times. The company says it has become the fifth-largest vulnerability management company in the world. In 2025 it launched Socify.ai, a platform for SOC 2 compliance automation. In January 2025, Arora also proposed that the government spend ₹500 crore over three years on cybersecurity awareness and training.

Timeline

1993Born on 2 November in Ludhiana.
2013Founds TAC Security at 19.
2014Receives a Punjab Government State Award on Republic Day.
2016TAC Security raises pre-Series A funding from Vijay Kedia.
2017Named among GQ's 50 Most Influential Young Indians; Santa Fe, New Mexico, proclaims 25 August "Trishneet Arora Day".
2018Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia; TAC Security becomes a product company and sets up in the US.
2019Named to Fortune India's 40 Under 40.
2022Reportedly invited by US Vice President Kamala Harris to speak on cybersecurity in New Mexico.
2024TAC Security lists on the NSE in April.
2025Named among Top 25 Cybersecurity Executives by The Software Report.

Recognition

Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia (2018)
Fortune India's 40 Under 40, in 2019 and 2021, and reported as its youngest member both times
Entrepreneur of the Year in Security Services, Entrepreneur Magazine (2020)
St. Gallen Symposium Leaders of Tomorrow (2018 and 2022)
GQ's 50 Most Influential Young Indians (2017)
Hurun India Rich List's youngest entrepreneurs (2024 and 2025)
Top 25 Cybersecurity Executives, The Software Report (2025)

Leadership lessons

Learn by doing. He taught himself by experimenting with computers and software.
Start with small jobs and be useful. Early local clients built the reputation that later won larger ones.
Turn skill into a product. TAC Security moved from selling hours to building a platform.
Explain risk in business terms. The company stresses making cyber risk understandable to executives.

The takeaway: a missing degree did not stop a teenager from building a respected cybersecurity company. Trishneet Arora started with curiosity, small jobs and a modest loan, then turned his reputation into trust from large clients and, eventually, a listed company.

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Sources

Written from public information, including Wikipedia, TAC Security, TAC Security's company timeline, Grokipedia and Business Outreach. Grokipedia is AI-generated, so details found only there are marked as reported. Client numbers, ESOF's launch date and some award years differ between sources. Net worth is left out because estimates differ and the sources use inconsistent terms.