The partnership makes Happiest Minds one of the first Indian IT services companies in the Tech Alliance, certifying its cybersecurity workforce against EC-Council’s ADG 2.0 framework while extending EC-Council-backed AI governance, AI systems, and human risk management solutions across its enterprise client base.
Tampa, Fla., October 8,2026: EC-Council, creator of the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential and a global leader advancing cybersecurity and responsible AI, today announced that Happiest Minds Technologies Limited has joined EC-Council’s Tech Alliance program, becoming one of the first Indian IT services companies to partner with EC-Council through the Alliance.
Membership positions Happiest Minds to offer its enterprise clients EC-Council-backed AI systems and AI governance solutions, built on the Adopt. Defend. Govern. (ADG) 2.0 framework, while certifying its own workforce to deliver them.
The agreement comes amid a global race to build and deploy AI faster than many organizations can govern it. Enterprises worldwide are under growing pressure to adopt agentic AI, while regulators and standards bodies work to keep pace through regulations and frameworks such as the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF). The gap between deployment speed and governance maturity has created a shortage of practitioners who can demonstrate, not just claim, that they know how to build AI systems securely and keep them accountable.
EC-Council’s ADG 2.0 framework forms the foundation of the partnership. Developed with practitioners from organizations including Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, KPMG, and Deloitte, the framework provides the AI governance model that will guide the collaboration.
Under the partnership, EC-Council will assess, map, and certify Happiest Minds’ technology and security workforce through EC-Council’s industry-leading AI and cybersecurity certifications aligned with the ADG 2.0 framework, beginning with a founding cohort and expanding toward full coverage across the company’s global delivery organization.
ADG 2.0 is designed to address a specific operational challenge for partners like Happiest Minds: making multi-jurisdiction AI governance a mapping exercise rather than a parallel compliance program for every region and client.
The framework spans 12 control families and more than 180 controls, mapped against more than 90 global regulations, standards, and frameworks, including the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, and the NIST AI RMF, so a single set of certification controls can be mapped to the regulatory or standards framework required for each engagement.
The partnership extends beyond training. EC-Council and Happiest Minds describe it as an effort to build the next generation of AI governance leaders, equipped to keep enterprise AI deployment safe, accountable, and under human control, not just fast.
As a Tech Alliance member, Happiest Minds also gains a path to extend that capability commercially by bringing EC-Council-backed AI governance, AI systems assurance, and security offerings directly to its enterprise client base, supported by a certified and independently verified delivery team. This includes next-generation, AI-based human risk management, defending clients against deepfakes, and AI-driven social engineering through EC-Council’s AwareX platform, alongside the ADG-aligned governance and certification work.
“AI is moving faster than most organizations’ ability to govern it, and that gap is where the real risk sits, not in the technology itself but in who is deploying it without the discipline to control it,” said Jay Bavisi, Founder and Group President, EC-Council. “Bringing Happiest Minds into the Tech Alliance gives the company a certified, independently verified team and gives its clients a partner who can prove it.”
“Happiest Minds joining EC-Council’s Tech Alliance enhances our cybersecurity practices with a focused, certified pathway to infuse AI capability across our teams. These enhanced skills and certifications will not act as a bolt-on but will become core to our best practices and next-generation approach to assessing, defending, and governing our client environments. As our practitioners advance through the ADG (Adopt. Defend. Govern.) certification pathways, their progress translates directly into delivery excellence: faster threat detection and AI governance built into every engagement, backed by independently verifiable execution standards,” said Anand Dutta, VP & Global Head – Cybersecurity, IMSS, Happiest Minds Technologies.
Happiest Minds’ workforce will be assessed and mapped to role-based EC-Council certification pathways delivered through the EC-Council Learning platform: AIE for foundational literacy, CAIPM for program and delivery leadership, COASP for offensive AI security, CRAGE for AI governance and ethics, and an AI-integrated update to CEH v13 for existing security practitioners looking to expand their capabilities across the AI attack surface. The EC-Council Learning platform is the world’s largest specialized cybersecurity and AI skill development platform of its kind.
About EC-Council:
Founded in 2001, EC-Council is a global cybersecurity and AI organization. It created the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) program and has certified more than 400,000 professionals across 174 countries. Its credentials are used across government, defense, enterprise, and academia.
As an ISO/IEC 17024-accredited certification body, EC-Council’s credentials are recognized by the U.S. Department of Defense under DoD 8140 and are held by professionals across the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force.
The EC-Council ecosystem includes EC-Council, EC-Council University (ECCU), CodeRed, EC-Council Global Services (EGS), EC-Council Academia, and AwareX.
Website: www.eccouncil.org
Media Contact: [email protected]
About Happiest Minds Technologies:
Happiest Minds Technologies Limited (BSE, NSE: HAPPSTMNDS) is an AI First, customer-centric digital engineering company committed to delivering “Happiest People. Happiest Customers.” With an integrated approach that spans from chip to cloud, Happiest Minds delivers secure and scalable solutions across product engineering, cybersecurity, analytics, and automation platforms. Happiest Minds brings purpose and precision to every engagement, helping enterprises solve complex business challenges and fast-track their digital evolution across industry sectors such as Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI), EdTech, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Hi-Tech and Media & Entertainment, Industrial, Manufacturing, Energy & Utilities, and Retail, CPG & Logistics.
Happiest Minds has been honored by both the Golden Peacock Awards and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) for its exemplary corporate governance practices. Guided by its mission of “Happiest People. Happiest Customers.” and consistently recognized as a great place to work, Happiest Minds is headquartered in Bengaluru, India, with a global presence across the Americas, the UK, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
Media Contact — Happiest Minds
Dr. Kiran Veigas
[email protected]
