Shauli Zacks
SafetyDetectives recently spoke with Fergus Hay, CEO and Co-Founder of The Hacking Games, a company on a mission to turn the next generation of tech-savvy youth into ethical hackers. What began as a personal concern around online safety quickly evolved into a purpose-driven business tackling two major challenges at once: the growing cybersecurity talent gap and the rise of youth cybercrime.
In this Q&A, Fergus shares how The Hacking Games is using entertainment, gaming, and AI to reimagine cybersecurity education, identify unconventional talent, and reshape how companies recruit for cyber roles. He also offers insight into how cultural perceptions of hacking are shifting—and why that change matters more than ever.
Can you share a bit about your background and what led you to your role as CEO at The Hacking Games?
I founded The Hacking Games based out of parental paranoia. I was invited by my now co-founder, who’s a cybersecurity entrepreneur, to meet some hackers. Having spent 3 hours with them, I left totally out of gas. I was shocked and fearful for what was happening to my kids, and I felt there was a big social crisis that no one was addressing. I felt a really strong sense of responsibility to address that.
When we dug into the category and the industry we realised it’s not just about stopping kids becoming cyber criminals, but also providing a pathway for them into the cybersecurity industry to fill the labour deficit and make the world safer. It’s a fundamental driver for us as an organisation – we have a really strong sense of social purpose – but we are also a really sustainable business model that can continuously chip away at the labour deficit and stop kids falling into cybercrime.
That’s why we put together a founding team of cybersecurity entrepreneurs who have deep access into the hacking industry, as well as Hollywood media and entertainment entrepreneurs who have deep experience in building persuasive entertainment and brands that can engage the youth market. That combination of skillsets enabled us to build The Hacking Games, which is approaching the industry issue with a more counter-intuitive approach.
What is the core mission behind The Hacking Games, and how do you see it helping solve the cybersecurity talent gap in a meaningful way?
Our mission is simple but bold – to create a generation of ethical hackers to make the world safer. We’re addressing a global security crisis. Right now, there are over 4.8 million unfilled roles in cybersecurity globally, despite 5.5 million people already working in the field. That’s a massive deficit that traditional recruitment methods simply aren’t closing. Meanwhile, cybercrime is expected to cost the global economy $23.8 trillion by 2027. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that this is a generational crisis that is somewhat going under the radar.
The Hacking Games is re-imagining the entire talent pipeline. We’re building a Gen Z-first brand that speaks their language through entertainment, gaming, online communities, and social media, and then channeling that engagement into real career pathways. By flipping the traditional approach on its head, we’re creating an accessible on-ramp for the next wave of cyber talent. We want to spark purpose and build a movement around ethical hacking.
Many cybersecurity professionals come from non-traditional backgrounds. How does The Hacking Games identify and support this unconventional talent?
Some of the best cybersecurity workers don’t come through the top schools or corporate internships. They’re self-taught and curious. They’ve been reverse-engineering games, tinkering with code, or competing in computing competitions since they were teens. There’s an entire underground of untapped brilliance that the industry overlooks simply because it doesn’t show up on a LinkedIn profile through a CV tailored to an AI detector.
That’s exactly why we built HAPTAI, our Hacking Aptitude AI Platform that identifies hacking aptitude based on performance. It tracks a candidates performance on gaming platforms, bug bounty platforms, participated in CTFs, or built their own exploits in their spare time. We use that data to build a skills identity and behavioral profile, mapping the full profile of a person. From there, we match them with employers who are looking for exactly that kind of ingenuity for specific job roles suited to their skills. We’re hoping to give candidates a shot at meaningful, high impact careers in cybersecurity.
What role does AI, particularly your HAPTAI platform, play in helping organizations assess real-world cybersecurity skills more effectively than traditional hiring methods?
Traditional hiring methods are outdated when it comes to cybersecurity. The real test of a good cyber professional is how they think under pressure, how they approach a problem, and whether they can spot vulnerabilities others miss. Our platform builds deep profiles based on what people do, not just what they say they’ve done. That means tracking performance in live environments combined with behavioral analysis to assess decision-making and risk tolerance. Just as an aside, so many cyber professionals we’ve spoken to have told us that they enjoyed hacking, but had no idea they could turn it into a career until they did. There are thousands of others just like that, either in the workforce or entering it, who would be perfect candidates for The Hacking Games.
HAPTAI gives organisations a smarter, data-driven way to assess candidates’ actual skills and potential. It helps companies filter for capability and potential. Plus, it’s a powerful tool for improving diversity in the industry by eliminating bias baked into conventional recruitment practices. We’re working with companies like ECSO who have their Women4Cyber track, and we’re want to make an impact in these spaces. We want to make hiring exciting and a lot more accurate.
With cybercrime growing rapidly, how do you see the role of ethical hackers evolving over the next few years? And how is The Hacking Games preparing the next generation for that shift?
Ethical hackers are becoming frontline defenders. As cybercrime scales up with ransomware attacks (and things like Ransomware-as-a-Service, look it up, they have HR departments!) becoming more frequent, organisations need people who think like attackers to build better defenses. With the pace of change in cybersecurity, we’re finding that certifications and degrees are becoming outdated immediately upon completion. What’s changing now is the visibility and value placed on flexible, up-to-date ethical hacking. It’s no longer just a niche role, it’s becoming a critical part of national and corporate security strategy. We’re in partnership with the Ministry of Defence in the UK and have seen first hand the emphasis that’s being placed on cyber defence.
We hope to prepare the next generation by giving them not just the tools, but also the identity. Our end-goal is a situation where it’s cool to be an ethical hacker, where young people see it as creative and mission-driven.
The Hacking Games also focuses on changing the cultural narrative around hacking through media and entertainment. Why is this so important, and what kind of impact are you hoping to make?
We were on a call recently and mentioned our mission about inspiring the next generation of ethical hackers. Someone replied that this is bigger than inspiring the next generation of ethical hackers, this is about inspiring the next generation, period. I think that’s a good summary of the impact we hope to make. Unfortunately, the word “hacker” still carries a lot of baggage. People picture criminals in hoodies, and that narrative needs to change if we want to inspire the next generation to pursue ethical hacking.
That’s why we’re focused on entertainment. We’re working with leading production partners to develop TV shows, documentaries, and social content that tell authentic, exciting stories of ethical hackers. Our goal is to build the most dominant ethical hacking brand on the planet, and that starts with culture. When Gen Z sees ethical hackers on screen, in competitions, and in communities they relate to, it hopefully creates a sense of identity and belonging. We’re reframing hacking as a force for good, and creating a pathway that makes it both aspirational and accessible.
