Black Hat Middle East and Africa

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Black Hat Middle East & Africa, formerly known as @HACK, is an annual cybersecurity conference held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event focuses on information security, cybersecurity research and hacking techniques and is regarded as one of the largest cybersecurity events globally by attendance and scale.

The conference is co-organised by the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and Tahaluf, a Saudi-British events and exhibitions company founded in 2022 as a joint venture between Informa PLC and the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones. The event is produced in association with the Black Hat team.

History

The first event took place from 28–30 November 2021 at Riyadh Front Expo Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The inaugural edition attracted over 25,000 attendees, 250 cybersecurity exhibitors, 50 expert ethical hackers and a programme of Black Hat training sessions. The event also featured two competitions: Capture the Flag and Bug Bounty.

Following the 2021 edition, @HACK was rebranded as Black Hat Middle East & Africa and relaunched under this name in 2022. The first edition of Black Hat MEA was held from 15–17 November 2022 at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center (RFECC) in Saudi Arabia. The event attracted more than 30,000 visitors and hosted over 250 exhibitors and more than 200 speakers.

The second edition of the event was held at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center (RFECC) from 14–16 November 2023, under the tagline Infosec on the Edge. The event attracted more than 40,000 information security professionals and featured over 300 speakers and exhibitors representing more than 120 countries. The programme included chief information security officers (CISOs) from organisations such as Huawei, Netflix, Uber, Airbus, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Zoom. The event also featured its youngest-ever speaker, 13-year-old Marco Liberale, who delivered a session on ransomware.

The 2023 edition of Black Hat MEA introduced an Investor Programme, bringing together more than 80 investors seeking opportunities in cybersecurity start-ups. These initiatives complemented the event’s existing competitions and a cybersecurity-focused Activity Zone, which was sponsored by NEOM in 2023 and offered prize funds of up to SAR 1,000,000.

The third edition of Black Hat Middle East & Africa was held from 26–28 November 2024 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham, Saudi Arabia. Branded under the theme Cybersecurity’s Global Stage, the event attracted more than 40,000 cybersecurity and information security professionals from around the world. The three-day programme featured over 330 speakers and 450 exhibitors, both international and local, with participants representing 167 countries.

The 2024 edition introduced several new elements, including the CyberSurge Boot Camp, which provided a learning platform for entrepreneurs seeking to launch cybersecurity start-ups in Saudi Arabia. The event also hosted the CyberSeed Start-up Competition for the third consecutive year, in which eight start-ups competed for a USD 30,000 prize fund by pitching their ideas to a panel of judges. During the same edition, the event’s Capture the Flag Tournament, first introduced at Black Hat MEA 2022, earned a Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest Capture the Flag tournament (Hackathon).

The 2025 edition of Black Hat Middle East and Africa was held from 2–4 December 2025 at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham, Saudi Arabia. The event marked its largest edition to date, expanding by 55 per cent compared with the previous year. It brought together attendees from more than 163 countries, over 500 global brands and 300 speakers across three days. The programme delivered more than 200 hours of content, with participation from the international cybersecurity community and representation from investors managing $13.9 billion in assets under management.

Black Hat Middle East & Africa 2026, the fifth edition of the event, is scheduled to take place from 1–3 December 2026 in Riyadh.

Speakers and sponsors

Across its various editions, the conference has hosted many ethical hackers, executives, government officials, and security experts, including Jayson E. Street, Jenny Radcliffe, Bruce Schneier, Kurt Sanger, Alissa Abdullah, Magda Lilia Chelly, Caleb Sima, Chris Roberts, Kim Albarella, Cynthia Kaiser, Camille Vasquez, Vitaly Gudanets, Dr. Pascal Andrei, Gary Sorrentino, Jeff Scheaffer, Chris Meenan, Kiran P P who is known for being a two-time NASA hacker and Google Hacker, CISOs of major tech companies and local government entities such as Netflix, Uber, Airbus, Snap Inc, Thales Group, Ministry of Justice (KSA), Unilever, Coca-Cola, The Wendy's Company, Prada, and Google DeepMind and government agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Interpol, and Ministry of Defense (UK).

Black Hat's sponsors and partners include venture capitalists, Fortune 500 companies, government-linked entities, education institutes and start-ups. Participating organisations have included IBM, Cisco, Honeywell, Fortinet, Kaspersky, Cisco, IBM, Spire and Infoblox, Haboob, Trend Micro, FlagYard, Cyberani by Aramco Digital, Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), Sirar by Stc, Google Cloud Security, SentinelOne, Group IB and Cipher.

See also

  • Web Summit
  • Consumer Electronics Show
  • Slush