India builds a large share of the world's security products. Global companies like Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler, Okta, CrowdStrike and Qualys have large engineering teams here, with Bengaluru as the main centre and Pune a strong second. India also has its own security companies, among them Securonix, Seclore, CloudSEK and Sprinto. And because Indian regulators required digital KYC on a scale no other country had, Indian companies like IDfy and HyperVerge built the identity checks that banks and brokers run on every new customer.
For an engineer, security work means thinking like an attacker. Much of it is ordinary backend, cloud and systems engineering, with the difference that every product is tested against people actively trying to break it. Firewall and gateway code that inspects traffic is written close to the hardware in C and C++, identity products lean on Java, and cloud security leans on Go and Kubernetes. Software Engineer, Security is the signature role here, hired far more often than at other product companies.
Cybersecurity is one of the Industry Verticals of
The Market Segments start with the places a company can be attacked, the inbox, the login, the device, the network, the cloud, the code and the data, then turn to the teams that watch for attacks, the work of finding weaknesses early, and the proof that security is in place.
The filters in front of the inbox and the training that teaches staff to spot a fake email come from companies like Proofpoint, Mimecast, Barracuda and Abnormal Security.
The login, the rights behind it and the keys to a company's most sensitive systems are managed with products from companies like Okta, Ping Identity, SailPoint, Saviynt and CyberArk.
The checks that read a customer's ID, match their face and tell a real customer from a fraudster are built by companies like IDfy, HyperVerge, Signzy and Jumio.
The agent that watches every laptop, phone and server, and the tools that manage those devices, come from companies like CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Sophos, Trellix and JumpCloud.
The firewall, the zero-trust gateway in the cloud and the protection in front of a website come from companies like Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Zscaler, Netskope and Cloudflare.
Securing workloads in someone else's cloud and the SaaS apps a company runs on is the work of companies like Sysdig, Aqua Security and AppOmni.
The scanners that check code, its open-source parts and its APIs while the software is being built come from companies like Black Duck, Checkmarx and Sonatype.
Finding where sensitive data is kept and stopping it from leaving are the business of companies like Forcepoint, Seclore, BigID and Cyberhaven.
The log store, the analytics and the playbooks that a security operations centre works from come from companies like Securonix, Gurucul, Swimlane and Cyware.
Companies that run the defence for other companies, around the clock, are here, like Arctic Wolf, eSentire and ReliaQuest.
Scanning for known flaws, mapping attack paths and inviting hackers to test the defences are the work of companies like Qualys, Rapid7, SecPod and Securin.
Watching the internet for a company's exposed systems, leaked data and the threats aimed at it is the business of companies like CloudSEK, ZeroFox and RiskProfiler.
Securing the AI models a company builds and uses is a young market, with companies like Tumeryk.
The software that proves a company meets its security standards to auditors, regulators and the board comes from companies like Sprinto, Hyperproof and Archer.
Badges, cameras and checkpoints, along with the tools that keep an app's users safe from each other, come from companies like HID, Eagle Eye Networks, Ambient.ai and Videonetics.
What cybersecurity companies hire software engineers for, and which roles they hire, is on