EC-Council offers free Hacker Halted 2026 admission for women in cybersecurity

EC-Council will give women in cybersecurity complimentary admission to Hacker Halted 2026, set for Oct. 8-9 in Atlanta. The move is meant to widen participation in technical security discussions as AI, deception and enterprise risk reshape the profession.

Why it matters: - EC-Council is trying to bring more women into the technical conversations shaping cybersecurity and AI. - The offer lowers the cost barrier to attend one of the industry’s recurring practitioner conferences. - The timing matters as security teams face more complex threats tied to AI, LLMs and digital deception.

What happened: - EC-Council announced complimentary admission for women in cybersecurity to Hacker Halted 2026. - Hacker Halted 2026 is scheduled for Oct. 8-9 at The Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta. - Women cybersecurity professionals can register for free admission using discount code WC26. - The offer applies only to conference admission. - Separate fees and eligibility rules may still apply to pre-conference training and other optional programs.

The details: - Hacker Halted is EC-Council’s annual cybersecurity conference for practitioners, researchers, executives and technology leaders. - The 2026 agenda will include 20+ presentations, panel discussions and breakout sessions. - The program will cover offensive security, threat intelligence, application security, AI and LLM security, security architecture, incident response and enterprise cyber risk. - The event will include two days of networking and practitioner exchange. - Speakers and attendees will include cybersecurity professionals and researchers from Citi, Amazon, Microsoft and Coupa Software. - The 2026 theme is “Cyber Carnival: Where Illusion Meets Intrusion.” - EC-Council says the theme shifts the focus from navigating chaos to seeing through deception. - Jay Bavisi, founder and group president of EC-Council, said the conference is meant to help practitioners sharpen judgment, exchange ideas and learn from one another as AI changes how threats appear and evolve. - Bavisi also said EC-Council wants more women in cybersecurity to help shape how the industry responds. - Qualified director-level and above information security executives may request approval to attend EC-Council’s Global CISO Forum 2026. - The Global CISO Forum is invite-only and closed-door for senior security leaders, CCISO professionals and invited practitioners.

Between the lines: - The free-admission push is both a diversity move and a workforce move. - EC-Council is linking inclusion to better technical decision-making in a field where AI is increasing the speed and sophistication of threats. - The conference theme suggests the industry is moving from broad awareness of risk toward a focus on deception, trust and judgment. - EC-Council is also using Hacker Halted as a feeder into its higher-level executive forum.

What's next: - Eligible women can claim the complimentary admission now through the Hacker Halted registration process. - EC-Council will continue positioning Hacker Halted as a forum for technical debate on AI, threat intelligence and defensive security. - More details on the conference are available at Hacker Halted.

The bottom line: - EC-Council is using Hacker Halted 2026 to widen access for women in cybersecurity while centering the industry’s next big challenge: defending against AI-amplified deception.