The cybersecurity community has been mourning the passing of Amit Yoran, chairman and CEO of Tenable Holdings, who with his brother Elad in 1998 launched Riptech, the first commercially-available MSSP, SC Media reports. Yoran died Jan. 3 at the age of 54.
Tenable, based in Columbia, Maryland, issued a press release on Saturday that said Yoran passed away unexpectedly. He was battling cancer.
Yoran’s passing was viewed by many in the industry as untimely, given the prospect of a second Trump administration, his experience with the federal government, and his willingness to take on powerful government interests and industry vendors.
Yoran took on the then newly-created Department of Homeland Security in 2003 for not properly supporting cybersecurity, and more recently in August 2023, criticized Microsoft for its delayed patching of a Power Platform vulnerability.
Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo, said Yoran’s true legacy lies in the way he reimagined what cybersecurity could be: not just an arms race against emerging threats, but a living, breathing collaboration that united defenders across industries and borders. “Amit reframed the role of cybersecurity from a narrow technical function into modern strategic thinking,” said Soroko.
