Cyber-security companies are hacking into their rivals to highlight shortcomings

BENGALURU: On a cold winter night in December 2015, Manan Shah, founder of Vadodara-based cybersecurity firm Avalance Global Solutions, woke up to an alarming text message from a prospective customer.

“Your competition says you can be hacked. Why should we use your services?” A hassled Shah realised that a competitor had taken down his IT systems and informed the prospective client about it. After plugging the holes in the system, the first thing Shah did was remove the “Success Stories” section on his company website. He did not want other competitors to know who his other clients were.

Shah’s firm isn’t the only one getting hacked by a rival . “Cybersecurity firms getting attacked by rivals in the business is quite common. It’s quite the norm,” says Shah.

Exploding demand for cybersecurity has led to a boom in the number of firms offering services. According to Data Security Council of India ( DSCI), India’s cybersecurity market is expected to grow to $35 billion by 2025 from about $4 billion currently. And there are over 150 vendors – big and small – competing in that space.



“This ecosystem includes several global security giants such as Symantec, Check-Point, IBM, Fortinet, and Kaspersky on one hand, and more than 120 startups and smaller companies operating in niche solution areas,” says Sandeep Sharma, research manager, software and security, IDC.

This splintered market is probably the biggest reason for the cut-throat competition and the desperation to bag business by hook or by crook. The managing director of a Russian cybersecurity firm with customers in India says that he often gets emails that appear genuine and ostensibly offer sensitive data of larger rivals. Most cyber companies seldom report hacking incidents fearing report cyberattacks fearing reputational damage.