The Business of Cyber Security: How Value Is Created, Destroyed, and Captured in the Cyber Economy

The familiar story of cybersecurity is attackers versus defenders. This book tells the other story — the money. Cybersecurity is a quarter-trillion-dollar-a-year economy with a property no other technology market has: demand its customers never chose, manufactured by criminals on one side and regulators on the other. That demand does not pause for recessions — and the capital knows it. Drawing on twenty years of buying and selling cybersecurity companies — more than 30 technology transactions worth over $7 billion in aggregate value — Atul Tiwary maps the entire value chain link by link: why buyers drowning in 70 tools are forcing the platform wars, how venture capital manufactures acquisition targets, why private equity runs the roll-up machine, what a cyber company is actually worth, and why most acquisitions still destroy value. The book closes with the forces rewriting the map — AI on both sides of the fight, the sovereign turn, and who wins the decade ahead. Inside: • The two demand engines — the threat economy and the regulatory state — and how to read them as leading indicators of tomorrow's deals • The full capital engine: venture, private equity, corporate venture, private credit, valuation, and the four exit fates • The operator's playbook — build, buy, or partner, and what the $32B Wiz deal really priced • 28 chapters, 191 exhibits, a falsifiable bear case, and two decades of deal mechanics from the inside For founders, investors, operators, bankers, and board members who want to understand the industry the way the capital does.