EC-Council has launched Hackers4Humanity, a scheme that links penetration testing exam results to cybersecurity training credits for underserved communities.
The programme invites 1,000 penetration testing professionals to take a sponsored attempt at the CPENT AI examination. For each participant who passes, EC-Council will allocate USD $1,000 in training and certification credits to nonprofit partners. Every completed attempt will generate USD $250, regardless of the result.
If all 1,000 places are filled and participants meet the required thresholds, the total value of funded training could reach USD $1 million. Candidates may be nominated by employers or apply directly, provided they are active penetration testing professionals with verifiable experience or hold the Certified Ethical Hacker qualification and have at least two years of information security experience.
Current holders of the C|PENT credential are excluded. Participants will receive one sponsored attempt only, with no retakes allowed under the scheme.
Exam Format
The CPENT AI exam is a practical assessment conducted in live enterprise environments. Candidates can sit it in two 12-hour sessions or one 24-hour sitting.
A score of 70% leads to the C|PENT AI certification, while 90% qualifies candidates for the Licenced Penetration Tester, or LPT (Master), credential. The programme is structured around outcomes, with training credits tied directly to completed attempts and successful passes rather than cash donations.
Training credits generated through the initiative will be distributed through CyberPeace Foundation, NPower, WiCyS Foundation, and EC-Council Foundation. These organisations will direct the support to people in underserved communities who might otherwise struggle to access cybersecurity education.
AI Pressure
EC-Council positioned the launch against rapid changes in AI-assisted cybersecurity work. It pointed to Anthropic's Claude Mythos Preview model, which it said demonstrated autonomous vulnerability discovery and exploitation at a scale previously associated with highly skilled human researchers.
It also cited findings from the UK AI Security Institute that Mythos completed expert-level cybersecurity tasks 73% of the time. EC-Council also referred to workforce shortages estimated at between 2.8 million and 4.8 million professionals, alongside Fortinet research showing that 86% of organisations experienced breaches in the past year and that more than half linked incidents to cybersecurity skills shortages.
Those figures help explain why access to training has become a strategic issue for employers, training providers, and nonprofit groups. As AI tools become more common in both attack and defence work, the gap between those with advanced training and those without it is likely to draw closer industry scrutiny.
Jay Bavisi, Founder and Group President, EC-Council, said the initiative is intended to identify experienced professionals while widening access to training.
"Penetration testing has never been about running tools. It's about thinking like an adversary, understanding what a defender missed, and adapting when the environment pushes back. AI doesn't change that. It amplifies it. We're not looking for people who can prompt an AI. We're looking for professionals who can think, and then use AI to execute ten times faster. Those are the people who will define the next decade of offensive security," said Jay Bavisi, Founder and Group President, EC-Council.
He said the programme was also designed to turn that expertise into support for people without established routes into the sector.
"Hackers4Humanity identifies exactly that calibre of professional. And when they pass, we contribute to building the next generation: people in underserved communities who have the aptitude but never had the access. AI will widen every skills gap that already exists unless we deliberately close them. This is how we start," said Bavisi.
EC-Council plans to report quarterly on the programme's reach, geographic distribution, and results while keeping participant identities confidential.
The organisation says it has certified more than 400,000 professionals across 174 countries since it was founded in 2001.