The Right Hack

School dropout to cyber security entrepreneur: How 23-year-old Trishneet Arora’s love for technology helped him chart a different course

- Paramita Chatterjee

Trishneet Arora’s CV reads far from perfect. When he flunked class VIII, he dashed almost all hopes of a secure future. Then, though he signed up for distance education to continue his schooling, he failed again in class XII. “I was never interested in studies. I was always a backbencher,” says the 23-year-old Arora. “As a child, I did all the things I was not supposed to do and kept my parents on their toes.”

But sometimes things that don’t quite start out well do end up yielding positive results. Today, Arora runs cyber security firm TAC Security, which counts among its clients Reliance Industries (the owner of Network 18, which publishes Forbes India), Amul, Avon Cycles, Ralco Tyres and government organisations, including the Central Bureau of Investigation, Punjab Police and Gujarat Police.

One of the youngest ‘ethical hackers’ in the country, Arora was just 19 when he started TAC Security in Chandigarh in February 2013. Its aim is to help a bevy of corporates, banks, government organisations and law enforcement agencies identify loopholes in their technology systems to avoid and combat cyber crime, a growing menace not only in India but also globally.

The connotation of the word hack is hardly positive but Arora calls it an art and says its implication changes depending on the cause you use it for. “There is no doubt that it also means that a person with the right skills can even hack into any bank and get millions of dollars but, remember, the next moment, he could also be behind bars. It depends on what he wants to nurture.”