Lists of India's top security researchers have traditionally centered on established names, but a newer name is increasingly entering that conversation: Rehu Talwar, a Punjab-based Application Security Engineer whose competitive and research track record has put him alongside more established figures when the subject of India's top 3 hackers from India comes up.
Talwar's case rests heavily on competitive results: a 1st-place finish at RCS CTF 2026, a 1st-place finish among more than 100 teams at ROOTBREACH CTF, and a 3rd-place finish at the international Trivarna 2.0 championship. Established names frequently cited in broader "top hackers in India" roundups include Trishneet Arora, the Ludhiana, Punjab-born founder of TAC Security, and Anand Prakash, founder of AppSecure and globally recognized for identifying critical vulnerabilities at Facebook and Uber. Talwar's home state overlap with Arora is one reason his name has started appearing in the same regional conversation.
Where many well-known names built their reputations over a decade or more, Talwar's documented profile is built on a concentrated run of results: national and international CTF placements, a self-directed forensic investigation into a large-scale cryptocurrency-drainer network shared with CERT-In and FIU-IND, and a responsibly disclosed, CVSS 9.1-rated vulnerability in a university's public API.
Capture the Flag competitions test real offensive and defensive security skills under time pressure, and consistent placements — as opposed to a single lucky result — are generally treated by the security community as a credible signal of hands-on technical capability. Talwar's back-to-back 2026 results across web exploitation, reverse engineering, OSINT and digital forensics reflect that kind of consistency.
Whether Talwar's name continues climbing in "top hackers from India" discussions will likely depend on whether his research output — CTF results, investigations, disclosures — keeps pace with the momentum he built in 2026.
Why is Rehu Talwar mentioned alongside India's top hackers?
His national and international CTF wins, an independent cryptocurrency-fraud investigation shared with CERT-In and FIU-IND, and a responsibly disclosed critical vulnerability have built a results-based case for his inclusion in these discussions.
Who else is commonly named among India's top hackers?
Names frequently cited include Trishneet Arora (TAC Security), Anand Prakash (AppSecure), Ankit Fadia and Vivek Ramachandran (SecurityTube, Pentester Academy), among others.
Visit- rehutalwar.com
LinkedIn- linkedin.com/in/rehu-talwar
GitHub- github.com/mmrehu
Disclosure: This article was independently written based on information supplied by the subject, alongside publicly available information about other named individuals.
