EC-Council to Increase Development of Ethical Hackers to Address Mounting Shortage of Cybersecurity Professionals

Citing 50% Vacancy in US Cybersecurity Workforce, Company Launches New Certified Ethical Hacker Training Framework Which Requires Trainees to “Hack” an Organization as Part of Their Training.

TAMPA, Florida, September 7th, 2022 /  EC-Council, the leading global cybersecurity certification body, has announced the release of its flagship Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) version 12 program, and plans to train up 100,000 new ethical hackers worldwide within 5 years to address the severe shortage of Certified Ethical Hackers across the globe.

Known for the de-facto global standard in building ethical hacking skill since 2003, EC-Council’s new CEH Version 12 program will be based on an entirely new learning framework incorporating a novel Learn, Certify, Engage, Compete methodology to create a new breed of skilled ethical hackers.

“The United States faces a severe shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals today, putting companies, government agencies, infrastructure, and Americans themselves at great risk,” said Jay Bavisi, Founder and CEO of EC-Council Group. “EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker program, mandated by many government agencies today, is the gold standard for ethical hacker training, and the new learning model will help train up our supply of cybersecurity professionals with real skills and experience.” 

A recent report by Cybersecurity Ventures pointed out that the gap of unfilled cybersecurity positions has grown by 350% between 2013 and 2021, with a current cybersecurity job vacancy rate of nearly 50%, according to CyberSeek, a project supported by the US Department of Commerce’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE). This shortage of available talent has real world consequences. According to a recent report from Fortinet, almost 80% of breaches were due to skill gaps that exist in organizations around the globe.

Bavisi added “Cybersecurity jobs evolve very fast, and we need professionals that have a broad range of skills that can be deployed in the real world,” “The new four-phase Learn, Certify, Engage Compete learning framework makes the CEH program the first program of its kind to actually take trainees beyond knowledge and have them put their skills to practical use.”

CEH today is relied upon by the US Department of Defense and other government agencies and used in 7 of the Fortune 10, 47 of the Fortune 100 within many cybersecurity functions, making it a de facto standard both in the public and private sector. The Certified Ethical Hacker program has been used by law enforcement, defense and Fortune 500 companies since early 2000. The Pentagon has embraced the CEH program as part of its defense workforce skill development program since 2010.

With the new version, it has been completely updated as part of the Learn and Certify methodology to match the cybersecurity challenges that cyber professionals face today. With the addition of Edge, Fog, Grid computing and the MITRE ATT&CK framework among others, CEH version 12 incorporates hacking techniques of the newest operating systems including Windows 11 and Server 2022, covering over 3500 cyber security tools, 519 Attack techniques, and over 220 distinct hands-on cyber exercises.

Candidates pursuing CEH Version 12 will now have access to the training program which incorporates comprehensive instruction and hands-on labs, followed by a simulated ethical hacking engagement to apply their skills in a live cyber range environment that emulates a mid-size target organization with four immersive, self-driven hacking assessments lasting 4 hours each which will require them to hack the organization in order to test their newly acquired skills from the program with a methodology called Engage.

Once the applied skills are mastered, candidates will be greeted with 12 months of global hacking competition under the Competemethodology of the new CEH learning model. Candidates will see monthly skill-enriching competitions, leaderboards, and detailed assessments of their performance in each competition setting. Building global Ethical Hacker Challenge Leaderboards, aspiring professionals will compete for top ranks among ethical hackers across the world with dynamic challenges covering everything from Malware to Service Exploitation, Web Application Attacks, to SCADA and ICS systems that control everything from power grids to water supply systems of cities across the world.