From a school dropout to successful entrepreneur

Ruchika M. Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 20

At 22, one would expect any youth to be full of ideas. But this lad from Ludhiana has managed a feat which many can just dream of — turning his idea into a successful business venture.

A school dropout, Trishneet Arora, has carved a name for himself as an ethical hacker, and has set up North India’s first Cyber Emergency Response Team.

Arora, who flunked in his Class VII examinations, and dropped out of school, has come a long way. Self-study, experimenting with his father’s computer and watching videos on YouTube, has helped him carve a name for himself as a “go-to” person whenever anyone’s cyber security is breached.

After Class VII, he completed his schooling through distance education and currently pursuing BCA. Other than Ludhiana, where he has set up his corporate office, Trishneet has set up virtual offices in Dubai and the UK, from where he claims, gets almost 40% of his clients.

He is a first-generation entrepreneur and founded TAC Security Solutions, a cyber security company that provides protection to corporations against network vulnerabilities and data theft. His clients include Reliance Industries Limited, CBI, Punjab Police and Gujarat Police. He says 50 Fortune 500 companies are his clients now.

Till now, Trishneet had been making websites of his clients secure from cyber threat. But he believes there is a bigger market for him in case of cyber attack, where clients stand to lose all online data, which he can help them secure.

His new business initiative — TAC-CERT — launched by Punjab Industries Minister Madan Mohan Mittal and Chandigarh SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill here yesterday is aimed at helping those whose websites, emails, cloud data etc get hacked. He is targeting a turnover of Rs 2 crore. “I am looking at expanding business in the US and talks are on with venture capitalists,” he said.