Jay Bavisi is the Co-Founder and President of EC-Council, a corporation specializing in info safety schooling, coaching, and certification. Established in response to the cybersecurity challenges highlighted by the occasions of 9/11, EC-Council focuses on addressing cyber terrorism and associated safety issues on a worldwide scale. The group is thought for creating certification packages resembling Licensed Moral Hacker (C|EH), Laptop Hacking Forensic Investigator (C|HFI), Safe Analyst (E|CSA), and Licensed Penetration Tester (L|PT).
Bavisi performed a job in creating a partnership with the Worldwide Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations company, by means of the Worldwide Multilateral Partnership In opposition to Cyber Threats (IMPACT). This collaboration aimed to boost info safety consciousness and capabilities throughout 194 member nations.
You launched EC-Council within the wake of 9/11 with a mission to construct international cybersecurity resilience. Are you able to share the story behind that founding second and what motivated you to dedicate your profession to securing the digital world?
Within the aftermath of 9/11, it grew to become painfully clear that safety needed to evolve. We had been now not simply guarding borders. We had been instantly uncovered in methods we hadn’t absolutely grasped, particularly within the digital world. I noticed that the following frontier of battle and resilience was our on-line world. It was a wake-up name for governments, companies, and people across the globe.
That second grew to become the start line for EC-Council. We noticed a essential hole. There merely weren’t sufficient skilled professionals who may defend our digital infrastructure. So, we got down to create a worldwide power of moral hackers; professionals who may suppose like adversaries however act with integrity to defend and safe.
That concept gave start to the Licensed Moral Hacker certification (CEH).It was radical on the time. We weren’t simply educating instruments or methods. We had been instilling a mindset. We had been saying, learn to break issues so you know the way to guard them.
Over time, CEH grew to become a worldwide normal. However what really drives me is not only how far we’ve come, however what number of lives, companies, and governments we’ve helped defend.
What began as a response to tragedy has grow to be a lifelong dedication to constructing digital resilience. That mission nonetheless guides every little thing we do immediately.
With over 350,000 cybersecurity professionals in your community, what modifications have you ever observed within the skillsets most in demand immediately—particularly post-ChatGPT and generative AI?
Cybersecurity has all the time been a race towards time. However with the explosion of generative AI, led by instruments like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the whole panorama has been reengineered. What used to take hours of handbook effort can now be performed in seconds with precision and scale. The accessibility of those AI instruments has democratized capabilities that had been as soon as restricted to elite menace actors. Now, anybody with a keyboard and curiosity can automate assaults, manipulate knowledge, or impersonate identities at scale.
Let’s be clear: OpenAI didn’t create cybercrime. However its applied sciences together with these from different main AI labs have supercharged what’s potential, for each defenders and attackers. The twin-use nature of generative AI means we’re residing in a world the place innovation and exploitation transfer in lockstep.
This shift has raised the bar for each cybersecurity skilled. It’s now not sufficient to grasp fundamental safety rules. Right now, professionals should understand how AI works, how it may be exploited, and the way it modifications the assault floor. Expertise like adversarial machine studying, immediate injection detection, and crimson teaming with AI-based instruments are shortly turning into core competencies.
We noticed this transformation mirrored within the CEH Menace Report. The info was clear menace actors are adapting quick. Our neighborhood should study even sooner.
At EC-Council, now we have constructed a tradition round upskilling. From foundational certifications just like the Licensed Cybersecurity Technician to AI specialised packages like CEH and CPENT, we’re enabling learners to repeatedly construct and sharpen their capabilities.
In cybersecurity, there isn’t any end line. Those that decide to evolving, questioning, and studying are those who will form the way forward for digital protection. Upskilling is now not about staying aggressive. It’s about staying related and staying prepared.
What makes the AI-powered CEH (Licensed Moral Hacker) certification uniquely positioned to handle present and future threats?
The Licensed Moral Hacker certification has grow to be synonymous with belief within the cybersecurity trade. When organizations search for professionals who can defend their programs proactively, CEH is the credential they depend on. It’s acknowledged by the U.S. Division of Protection and adopted by hundreds of employers worldwide, not only for its technical rigor, however as a result of it represents readiness, resilience, and real-world relevance.
What makes CEH stand out immediately is the way it has developed to handle a brand new class of threats powered by synthetic intelligence. In its newest model, CEH doesn’t simply point out AI as a future concern. It brings it into the center of the training expertise. Learners work together with AI-driven adversaries in simulated environments. They’re uncovered to over 550 assault methods, lots of which now mirror how actual attackers are utilizing automation, machine studying, and artificial content material to interrupt into programs.
CEH is designed to arrange professionals for what they are going to face, not simply what’s written in textbooks. It follows a full-cycle method: Study-Certify-Have interaction-Compete framework. That journey creates muscle reminiscence, strategic pondering, and instinctive responses.
In a world the place cyber threats are evolving by the hour, CEH is greater than a certification. It’s a sign to employers that you’re not solely skilled however ready. And in cybersecurity, that sort of belief is every little thing.
How does EC-Council’s method to coaching differ when making ready professionals to defend towards AI-generated threats or to safe AI programs themselves?
We’re coming into a cybersecurity period the place threats will not be solely extra complicated but additionally more and more autonomous. Defenders should now be able to counter assaults launched by clever programs that adapt, study, and evolve. At EC-Council, now we have reimagined our coaching to mirror this actuality. We don’t put together learners for yesterday’s challenges. We put together them for what comes subsequent.
In CEH and CPENT learners are immersed in environments the place adversaries use AI to imitate human conduct, automate breaches, and dynamically regulate their techniques. These will not be tutorial workout routines. They’re real-world simulations designed to sharpen instincts, not simply understanding. Professionals learn to defend programs that suppose and the right way to safe AI itself.
We additionally consider that expertise shouldn’t be confined by geography. By means of international initiatives just like the Licensed Cybersecurity Technician Scholarship Program , we’re making these alternatives accessible to aspiring professionals in underserved areas. The aim is to construct a tradition of safety, globally.
This imaginative and prescient is powered by a sturdy ecosystem. EC-Council Studying , the world’s largest on-line cybersecurity library, gives on-demand entry to hundreds of bite-sized classes, up to date repeatedly to mirror the newest threats, instruments, and vulnerabilities. Whether or not you might be studying the right way to counter AI-generated assaults or brushing up on SOC procedures, ECL helps professionals keep prepared; anytime, anyplace.
EC-Council College (ECCU) shapes the following era of cybersecurity leaders with a robust basis in tutorial and executive-level data. EGS presents strategic enterprise options that assist organizations construct mature cyber protection frameworks.
After which there may be the Hackerverse CTF our international cyber competitors platform the place data meets stress. Contributors face off in red-versus-blue crew battles, simulating real-time breaches, defending mission-critical programs, and dealing collaboratively to neutralize threats. It’s greater than a contest. It’s a proving floor that builds resilience, creativity, and the flexibility to carry out when it issues most.
That is how we put together professionals to fulfill the longer term. With data that’s present, environments which can be immersive, and platforms that encourage motion. Cybersecurity is now not only a profession. It’s a calling, and our mission is to equip the world’s defenders for that accountability.
Your packages are acknowledged by international companies just like the NSA and ANSI. How do you keep such a excessive normal whereas quickly evolving your curriculum to fulfill AI developments?
It’s one factor to maintain up with change. It’s one other to remain trusted whereas doing it. For us, high quality and agility should go hand in hand. That’s how we’ve earned and maintained recognition from international our bodies just like the NSA and ANSI.
We have now a system that retains us grounded in analysis whereas staying open to innovation. Our international crew tracks rising threats, analyzes new assault vectors, and displays developments in AI and cybersecurity. That intelligence feeds immediately into our curriculum pipeline.
However velocity alone isn’t sufficient. Each replace we make goes by means of a rigorous course of. We pilot take a look at it with seasoned professionals. We validate it in real-world environments like our cyber ranges. And we refine it primarily based on suggestions from those that dwell within the trenches on daily basis.
Take CEH and CPENT for instance. Integrating AI simulations into these packages was not only a technical resolution. It was a mission-driven one. We needed to verify professionals had been being skilled in what they might really encounter not simply what principle says they may.
What retains our packages forward is that this fixed stability of innovation and integrity. We don’t simply train greatest practices. We construct packages that practitioners, governments, and international enterprises can belief. And we plan to maintain it that manner.
What function does EC-Council envision enjoying in shaping international coverage or regulation round AI in cybersecurity?
Coverage is barely as efficient because the perception it’s constructed on. At EC-Council, we consider cybersecurity regulation have to be knowledgeable by those that face threats on daily basis. That’s the reason we actively have interaction with policymakers, schooling ministries, requirements our bodies, and intergovernmental organizations to assist form the frameworks that information the way forward for digital safety.
Our function isn’t restricted to curriculum growth. We’re a part of a broader dialogue on how nations and establishments can construct resilience, particularly as AI turns into extra deeply built-in into each offensive and defensive capabilities. We carry to the desk frontline intelligence from our huge community of cybersecurity professionals, menace researchers, and instructors throughout 145 nations. This provides us a novel vantage level—rooted in sensible actuality and international scale.
We contribute to the event of nationwide workforce requirements, advise on rising AI competencies, and collaborate with governments to align cybersecurity schooling with nationwide safety objectives. Our insights have helped outline the construction of public-private partnerships, capacity-building initiatives, and the function of steady studying in long-term resilience methods.
Whether or not by means of certifications, enterprise coaching, tutorial packages, or analysis partnerships, we’re shaping not simply how professionals are skilled, however how nations put together for the longer term. As AI continues to reshape the cyber area, our mission is to make sure coverage retains tempo with readability, foresight, and integrity.
Do you consider we’re approaching some extent the place conventional safety roles should evolve into “AI safety specialists”?
The shift is already taking place. AI is now not a specialised subject sitting on the perimeters of cybersecurity. It’s turning into a part of each perform, from menace detection to id administration, from crimson teaming to vulnerability evaluation. Safety professionals can now not afford to deal with AI as a separate talent set. It’s now foundational.
We’re seeing the early indicators of this transformation within the job market. New roles are rising AI safety researcher, artificial id analyst, LLM immediate danger evaluator. These will not be simply buzzwords. They’re alerts that organizations want individuals who perceive each cybersecurity and the mechanics of clever programs.
At EC-Council, we’re embedding AI throughout our complete certification ecosystem. It’s now not reserved for superior learners. Even in foundational programs, professionals are launched to AI-driven threats and protection methods. We’re educating folks the right way to suppose critically about machine studying pipelines, the right way to detect algorithmic bias, and the right way to stop AI from being turned towards the programs it was meant to guard.
The way forward for cybersecurity belongs to those that can bridge disciplines. As AI turns into embedded in each side of digital infrastructure, our defenders should develop simply as refined. This evolution isn’t optionally available. It’s the subsequent chapter within the story of cyber resilience.
You’ve emphasised supporting startups past main tech hubs—how are you making certain entry to this funding and coaching throughout underrepresented areas?
At EC-Council, we’re continually working to broaden the attain of cybersecurity innovation. We’re seeing among the most promising concepts come from locations far exterior conventional tech corridors, typically from professionals fixing pressing challenges in actual time, with deep native perception and restricted assets.
To assist this momentum, we’re working a $100 M international funding initiative that actively invests in cybersecurity startups demonstrating real-world affect, no matter location. We aren’t simply providing capital. We’re offering mentorship, technical steering, and entry to EC-Council’s international platforms; serving to startups develop their options and entry worldwide markets.
We’re giving precedence to ventures led by EC-Council-certified professionals, as they bring about each technical experience and a robust moral basis to their work. These people perceive the complexities of contemporary threats and are constructing options that align with trade wants and societal affect.
On the identical time, we’re rising entry to coaching in underserved areas. By means of our Licensed Cybersecurity Technician Scholarship Program, we’re opening doorways for aspiring professionals in nations like Nepal and Malaysia. We’re additionally enabling learners world wide to have interaction with high-quality content material by means of our platforms, gaining the abilities they should contribute meaningfully to the sphere.
We’re constructing an ecosystem that continues to develop by recognizing expertise wherever it exists and supporting innovation that makes a distinction globally.
What impressed EC-Council to launch a $100 million initiative now, and the way do you see AI altering the cybersecurity innovation panorama within the subsequent 5 years?
We launched $100 M international funding initiative as a result of the panorama has modified. Innovation is now not confined to massive companies or tutorial labs. It’s being pushed by practitioners by folks within the trenches who’re seeing new challenges and responding with daring, sensible options.
The velocity and scale at which AI is remodeling cybersecurity is unprecedented. Over the following 5 years, we anticipate to see main advances in predictive analytics, autonomous crimson teaming, AI-native SOCs, and real-time resolution engines. These will not be science fiction. They’re already taking form in prototypes and early deployments.
However innovation alone isn’t sufficient. It wants assist. That’s the reason we created this initiative to gas the following era of cybersecurity breakthroughs. We’re searching for startups that mix technical excellence with deep mission focus. We wish to again builders who perceive the issue from the within and are prepared to resolve it from the bottom up.
Our aim is to create a multiplier impact. We offer funding, mentorship, and international visibility. In return, we assist scale concepts that may strengthen protection programs worldwide.
This isn’t simply an funding. It’s a dedication to the way forward for cybersecurity. A future the place the most effective concepts get constructed, regardless of the place they arrive from.
What recommendation would you give to younger professionals contemplating coming into the cybersecurity area immediately—significantly these fascinated by AI?
Begin with curiosity. That’s a very powerful trait on this area. You don’t want an ideal resume or a standard background. What you want is the drive to study, the self-discipline to maintain going, and the braveness to ask higher questions.
Cybersecurity is without doubt one of the most significant careers you possibly can pursue. It isn’t nearly defending knowledge. It’s about defending folks, establishments, and the very cloth of our digital lives. And if you’re drawn to AI, that’s much more thrilling. We’re at the start of a brand new period the place clever programs will form how we defend every little thing from private gadgets to nationwide infrastructure.
Dive into how fashions work. Break them. Repair them. Perceive how attackers exploit them and the way defenders can battle again. Experiment. Study. Collaborate. This isn’t a solo journey. The most effective cybersecurity professionals work in groups, construct communities, and develop by sharing.
At EC-Council, now we have constructed a path for each stage of that journey. Whether or not you might be simply beginning with hands-on labs or pushing your self in international competitions, there may be area for you right here. The world wants moral defenders who will not be solely expert, however pushed by function. If that sounds such as you, then welcome to a area the place you may make an actual affect.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to EC-Council.