Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress to address the impact of AI on cybersecurity

Against a backdrop of accelerating digital transformation, increasingly interconnected systems and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, the seventh edition of Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress (BCC) will bring together leading players from across Europe’s digital security ecosystem to address how industries, businesses, critical infrastructure and urban services can be protected against increasingly sophisticated attacks, with AI emerging as a major threat.

Under the theme ‘Connecting the European cybersecurity ecosystem’, BCC is consolidating its position in 2026 as a leading European business and knowledge-sharing platform where participants can exchange expertise, generate business opportunities and forge partnerships between public institutions, research centres, technology companies and digital security leaders.

Organised in partnership by Fira de Barcelona and the Agència de Ciberseguretat de Catalunya, the seventh edition of BCC will feature 111 companies and 34 sponsors in its exhibition area, including EY, Fortinet, Cisco, SoSafe, Mastercard, Sophos, ClearSkies, Sirt, Trend Micro, ThreatLocker and Telefónica, among others. They will showcase solutions designed to anticipate, detect and respond to cyberattacks.

The conference programme, meanwhile, will be structured around three main themes: cybersecurity as a strategic business priority and reputational factor; artificial intelligence, identity and trust in the digital environment; and systemic, cyber-physical and supply chain resilience.

International experts
The more than 150 international speakers taking part include Connie McIntosh, Head of Security at Ericsson; Sounil Yu, co-founder and Chief AI Safety Officer at Knostic and a member of the Cybersecurity Hall of Fame; Pekka Jokinen, Deputy Director General of Finland’s National Cyber Security Centre; Arvin Bansal, CISO at C&S Wholesale Grocers and author of the TRACE Framework; and Marcos Gómez, CISO and Deputy Director of Corporate Security at INCIBE.

The speaker line-up also includes experts such as Tim Brown, former CISO of SolarWinds and a partner at Team8; Holger Spohn, Principal Engineer at NATO; Seamus Lennon of ThreatLocker; Darren James of Specops Software; Rob Harrison of Sophos; Carlos Solano of NTT DATA; and Lino Santos, Head of Portugal’s National Cybersecurity Centre, among others.

The programme will also feature a series of parallel events combining strategic analysis with practical case studies. These include the session ‘Cyber resilience in the industrial supply chain’, which will examine the technological dependencies between operators and manufacturers, and the CyberHubs España National Conference, bringing together representatives from institutions, industry, academia and the technology ecosystem to examine the evolution of cybersecurity strategies, the development of capabilities and talent, and the impact of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other emerging technologies.

Leadership in cybersecurity
Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress will also host the CISO Leadership Awards 2026, recognising professionals, organisations and initiatives that are advancing cybersecurity internationally. After reviewing 65 nominations, a panel of ten experts selected 28 finalists across seven categories covering strategic leadership, technological innovation, critical infrastructure protection, talent and the development of a strong digital security culture.

Organisations represented among the nominees include Abertis Group, Puig, Grupo Argal, CH Media, Vodafone España, IDIKA, Ericsson, AirTrunk, Straumann Group and Adam Foods, alongside initiatives from public administrations and technology companies.

Flavia Santoro, Director of the event, added: “The rise in cybercrime makes events such as BCC increasingly necessary, providing a space where cybersecurity moves from theory into practice and bringing the entire ecosystem together in Barcelona to share needs, identify opportunities and build new partnerships.”

The scale of the digital threat is reflected in the latest figures. Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Ciberseguridad (INCIBE) recorded 122,223 cybersecurity incidents in 2025, 26% more than in 2024, and identified and reported 237,028 vulnerable systems. In Catalonia, meanwhile, the Agència de Ciberseguretat managed 6,544 unique cyber incidents during 2025, compared with 3,372 the previous year, and detected more than 9.1 billion attempted attacks, over 7 billion of which were blocked automatically and immediately.

From 3 to 5 November, Barcelona Cybersecurity Congress will take place in Hall 2 of Fira de Barcelona’s Gran Via venue, alongside Smart City Expo World Congress, Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress, Tomorrow.Blue Economy, HOWS Barcelona – Housing World Summit and Barcelona Deep Tech Summit.

Barcelona, 26 October 2026

Edu Pérez Moya
93 233 21 66
[email protected]