EC-Council buys Cyber Insurance Academy to broaden AI-risk education for insurers

Insurance professionals who assess and price AI risks are the audience for EC-Council’s latest acquisition. On October 21, 2026, the cybersecurity training organization announced it had acquired Cyber Insurance Academy. The Academy will keep its brand and leadership while widening its teaching beyond cyber insurance to AI and emerging technology risks.

The skills gap behind the purchase

EC-Council, creator of the Certified Ethical Hacker credential, describes a divide between two groups. Insurance professionals responsible for assessing, pricing, placing and managing cyber and AI risks rarely have technology backgrounds, it says. Technical specialists, meanwhile, often lack fluency in insurance.

That diagnosis explains the buyer’s choice of an existing insurance education business rather than an entry from outside the industry. Cyber Insurance Academy already trains brokers, underwriters, claims professionals and risk managers. EC-Council says the acquisition gives it a dedicated insurance education operation with established industry relationships and credentialing expertise.

The Academy gains access to EC-Council’s technical specialists, global network and cybersecurity and AI capabilities. The companies expect that access to speed development of a broader course catalogue, because technical material would no longer need to be sourced externally. That is an intended benefit of the acquisition, not a measured result.

Every insurance professional is now a technology risk professional, whether they realize it or not.

Guy Simkin, co-founder and CEO of Cyber Insurance Academy

An updated credential, then a wider curriculum

One curriculum change is already part of the expansion. The Academy has rebuilt its flagship Certified Cyber Insurance Specialist designation as CCIS v2. The updated credential adds coverage of AI-driven threats, AI governance and the insurance exposures AI creates across portfolios.

Cyber insurance will remain the Academy’s core focus. Beyond that foundation, the planned portfolio has three branches, each aimed at helping insurance professionals understand the technology behind the risks they handle:

• AI risk: education on how AI changes potential losses, underwriting, claims and governance across insurance portfolios, extending the subject beyond threats traditionally covered in cyber training.
• Emerging technology risk: teaching about risks associated with technologies such as autonomous systems and quantum computing, alongside the Academy’s continuing work in cyber insurance.
• Role-based technology education: practical learning for non-technical insurance professionals, designed around understanding the technologies behind the risks they place, price and manage.

The existing business carries the expansion

The Academy will continue under co-founder and CEO Guy Simkin and co-founder Asaf Armoni, its chief technology and operating officer. It will operate as an EC-Council company without changing its brand. The announced structure preserves the Academy’s insurance leadership while adding access to its new parent’s technical resources.

Its existing programs also bring professional recognition. According to the announcement, they are accredited by CII, ANZIIF, RIBO and NIBA, and approved for continuing education in more than 45 U.S. states. Those approvals describe the Academy’s programs; the announcement does not identify separate approvals for every planned new course.

The next step is delivery of the wider portfolio through self-paced learning, role-based certifications, professional designations and enterprise programs. The latter will target insurance carriers, brokers and managing general agents seeking to strengthen their teams’ technology knowledge. EC-Council did not disclose a purchase price or a timetable for that full expansion.