Over 30,000 visitors attended Black Hat MEA during the three-day event

Black Hat, the cybersecurity conference, has concluded with over 30,000 visitors attending over the three-day event to learn more about the threats, solutions, and technology involved in hacking.

Black Hat has quickly established itself as the world’s premier cyber safety event, and Black Hat MEA is rapidly gaining traction in bringing the cybersecurity community in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC together. The conference, now in its second year, is without a doubt the largest of its kind in the region, with attendees taking part in seminars, workshops, hacking demonstrations, competitions with 1 million SAR as prizes, and talks from world-renowned experts.

DiceGang won the first prize of 300,000 SAR in the Capture the Flag competition. It was co-organized by Black Hat MEA and the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP) and drew over 1,000 participants, including 50 of the world’s best hacking teams, who tested their ethical hacking skills in areas such as the Web, PWN, Forensics, Reverse Engineering, cryptography, and more. 7*7 was awarded second place and 200,000 SAR, Five Boys Cry was awarded third place and 100,000 SAR, C4T BuT S4D was awarded fourth place and 60,000 SAR, and Cookie Storm was awarded fifth place and 40,000 SAR.

Anas Rouby won the 70,000 SAR top prize in the Bug Bounty contest, which lasted three days. It assembled select teams to track down and conduct bug hunts on real-world businesses using the BugBounty.sa platform. Abdulrahman Makki finished second with 40,000 SAR, and Abdulrahman Albattel finished third with 30,000 SAR. Roaa Aljrefani received 15,000 SAR in the Most Critical Vulnerability category, and Turki Alharthi received 10,000 SAR in the Best Quality Report category.

CyberTalents, a global platform for learning, practicing, and testing cybersecurity skills, won the CyberSeed Start Up competition, taking home a prize of 90,000 SAR. During the event, six startups were given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a high-profile panel in a four-minute presentation.

Black Hat MEA praised

Salman Faqeeh, Managing Director, Cisco, Saudi Arabia, said: “For the last 25 years, Cisco has been at the forefront of delivering innovative technology to the Kingdom as part of our commitment to the Saudi market and to growing the technology ecosystem in the country. As organizations and governments are now rapidly digitizing in line with the Saudi Vision 2030, highlighting cybersecurity is imperative for IT decisionmakers to achieve security resilience and protect the integrity of their business withstanding any threats. “

He continued: “We were honored to be a part of Black Hat MEA, as it has proven to be a successful regional strategic platform, where we were able to demonstrate Cisco’s security solutions to businesses investing in their workforce to be more productive and protected especially with the increased demand of cloud services and hybrid work, ultimately leading to business growth.”

Sanjeev Walia, Founder and President, Spire Solutions, said: “Being a part of the first Blackhat in the Middle East & Africa region as a Strategic Partner has been an exceptional experience. Our approach to solving current and emerging cybersecurity changes resonated really well with the government organizations and enterprises we met with. It’s important for the cybersecurity community to frequently come together and help advance the entire ecosystem collectively, proactively.”

Mike Champion, Regional Executive Vice President of Informa Markets, said he was delighted with the rapid growth of the event. “We have had a fantastic response from partners, exhibitors, speakers, and visitors to Black Hat MEA,” he said. “The cybersecurity community in Saudi Arabia is growing rapidly and that is reflected in the fact that we had more than 30,000 people attend during the three-day event. We are excited to bring even more insightful and thought-provoking speakers while showcasing the latest innovative advancements in cybersecurity to future events.”

Cyber awareness and protection workshops

The exhibition was split into different sections with various displays, demonstrations, activities, and workshops taking place throughout the event.

The Drone Zone taught visitors about different methods for hacking and flying drones around an obstacle course while others worked to attack the devices as they flew. Elsewhere, the Cyber Escape room provided visitors with the chance to try their hand at ‘breaking out’ of a specially designed room by completing a series of challenges.

The Smart City Challenge gave delegates the opportunity to hack Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) assets against any cyberattacks and incidents from state and non-state actors with real world systems and examples. Meanwhile, the Chip Off Village taught guests how to remove embedded eMMC chips from devices for analysis and how to attack, obtain data and gain access control of Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices.

Black Hat in numbers

This year’s event saw 257 speakers hosting more than 200 sessions and over 100 workshops. The event attracted more than 200 Cybersecurity CEOs along with over 250 of the world’s leading technology companies such as Cisco, IBM, Spire, and Infoblox along with 200 exhibitors on ground.

The event was organized as part of a strategic partnership between Informa Markets, the largest events company in the world, and the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) to highlights the Kingdom’s investments and growth in cybersecurity and the digital space.

For more details about Black Hat Middle East and Africa, please visit: www.blackhatmea.com