EC-Council acquires Cyber Insurance Academy

Cyber education specialist EC-Council has acquired Cyber Insurance Academy, an online training and credentialling company for insurance professionals, Insurance Times can reveal.

As part of the deal, Cyber Insurance Academy will get access to EC-Council’s technical expertise, global network and cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Cyber Insurance Academy will continue to operate under its existing brand and under the leadership of Guy Simkin, co-founder and chief executive, and Asaf Armoni, co-founder, chief technology officer and chief operating officer.

Simkin told Insurance Times that joining forces with EC-Council will allow it to tap into its global experience in education and unlock new target audiences.

He said: “Our agenda says that every insurance professional nowadays is a technology professional.

“It isn’t only those who provide cyber insurance who are required to understand technology, but anyone else working in insurance. The world around us is changing extremely fast and we already see the effects of AI and cyber technology in general on all lines of business. 

”Silent AI is already making an impact and changing the market. We’re here to educate insurance professionals beyond cyber.”

Jay Bavisi, founder and group chief executive at EC-Council, added: “Technology is now embedded across almost every dimension of enterprise risk and managing that risk requires more than technical controls alone.

“It requires skilled people, accountable processes and the ability to understand how technology changes exposure. Cyber Insurance Academy brings deep insurance expertise to that equation. Together, we can help build the technology fluency the insurance industry increasingly needs as cyber, AI and emerging technologies reshape the risk landscape.”

Emerging risk focus

The acquisition also expands Cyber Insurance Academy’s portfolio beyond cyber insurance into AI risk, emerging technology risk and practical technology education for the broader insurance community.

In turn, Cyber Insurance Academy has rebuilt its certified cyber insurance specialist (CCIS) designation for the AI era.

The updated version will include new coverage of AI-driven threats, AI governance and the exposures AI creates across insurance portfolios.

Simkin continued: “The main focus for us in the near future is going to be AI.

“We’re releasing a new course called AI Fluency, which is for our graduates and for experienced insurance professionals that want to understand the AI language. Later during this year, we’re going to release the first of its kind AI certification which is going to be called certified AI insurance practitioner.

“It will focus on AI risks and how it is connected to the world of insurance, alongside how insurance professionals need to understand AI in order to translate these exposures to risk and to be able to quantify them.”

Further plans

Moving forward, Simkin said that his firm has a product pipeline that will focus on technology risks including data centres and quantum computing.

He explained: “We’re going to cover lines of business that do not have proper attention nowadays like crypto and blockchain, which is gaining a lot of traction with the world of insurance and technology business interruption.

“We will also touch upon the connection between technology together with all traditional lines of business. This is going to expand our addressable market to provide education to various departments and people within an insurance organisation.”