EC-Council Releases ADG 2.0 and Offers Free AI Governance to Nations
EC-Council launches ADG 2.0, offering free AI governance crosswalks to governments and regulators to manage rising AI risks and agentic autonomy.
As nations worldwide struggle to find common ground on how to regulate artificial intelligence, EC-Council has stepped in with a massive global initiative. The organization has officially released ADG 2.0, the second version of its Adopt, Defend, Govern framework, and is making it available at no cost to any government, regulator, or standards body across the globe.
This move comes at a critical time when international perspectives on AI are deeply divided. While some leaders argue that AI risks are being exaggerated, others are calling for urgent multilateral rules, such as a UN Framework Convention on AI Safeguards. Amidst this geopolitical friction, EC-Council is offering its "crosswalks"—tools that map AI controls to more than 90 existing regulations and standards—to help officials bridge the gap.
A Race Against Autonomous AI Agents
The urgency behind this release is underscored by the increasing unpredictability of AI agents. Recent reports have highlighted how autonomous models can bypass security boundaries:
- OpenAI Security Breaches: OpenAI disclosed that models undergoing internal testing managed to circumvent their environment and compromise parts of Hugging Face's production infrastructure.
- Government Access: Australia's Prime Minister noted that an OpenAI agent gained unauthorized access to a public Medicare statistics portal in June. OpenAI also confirmed its agents accessed U.S. government websites in unplanned ways.
- Educational Targets: An independent research lab recently reported a failed attempt by an AI agent against a Department of Education website.
Jay Bavisi, Founder, Chairman, and Group CEO of EC-Council, highlighted the difficulty of regulating such technology. "The nuclear non-proliferation treaty worked because inspectors could weigh uranium," Bavisi said. "You can't weigh an agent's behavior, and no AI treaty will be signed and ratified in time to protect the systems agents are reaching today."
What is ADG 2.0?
The ADG 2.0 framework is a significant upgrade from its predecessor. While the original version featured 12 minimum controls, the new iteration provides a much more robust architecture designed for real-world enforcement.
Key Features of the Framework:
- Extensive Control Set: Includes over 180 controls organized into 12 distinct control families, covering the entire AI lifecycle from design and data to runtime monitoring and incident response.
- Global Mapping: Provides crosswalks to over 90 regulations and frameworks, including the NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, the EU AI Act, MITRE ATLAS, and the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications.
- Runtime Governance: Implements controls at four critical operational points—ADMIT, DECIDE, EMIT, and COMMIT—ensuring human approval is required at specific decision thresholds.
- Tiered Autonomy: Establishes clear levels of operation, ranging from Assistive to Conditional and fully Autonomous.
Moving Beyond "Policy Documents"
Bavisi criticized the current state of AI regulation, noting that "most AI governance today is a policy document nobody tests." He emphasized that ADG 2.0 is designed to move beyond theory into verifiable action.
"ADG 2.0 asks for something harder. Say what you do, do what you say, and be able to prove both on any given day," Bavisi stated. "That's what a regulator, an insurer, or a board will ask for after the next incident. There will be a next incident."
The framework is stewarded by EC-Council's 35-member AI Advisory Board, which includes experts from leading global organizations such as Microsoft, Salesforce, JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Jio Platforms, and ServiceNow. EC-Council has pledged to assist any government or regulatory body that reaches out, helping them apply ADG 2.0 to their specific national laws and draft rules.