Black Hat Middle East and Africa

The first event was held on 28–30 November 2021 at Riyadh Front Expo Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's a part of Riyadh Season. The first edition of the event had over 25,000 attendees, 250 cybersecurity exhibitors, 50 expert ethical hackers, and many Black Hat trainers. The event also held two contests, Capture The Flag and Bug Bounty.[8][9][10][11]

The second edition of Black Hat MEA was held on 15-17 November 2022 at Riyadh Front Expo Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[12] The 2022 edition witnessed over 32,000 infosec professionals from over 120 countries, 200 speakers[13] and 30 ministerial bodies, and featured an interactive Activity Zone by NEOM including a smart city village simulation model where visitors could hack critical information infrastructure assets using real-world systems and examples.[14][15][16][17] Attendees could visit the Cyber Escape Room Village, a physical activation game to test cybersecurity knowledge, and experienced how to hack drones and fly them in an obstacle course.[18] During Black Hat MEA 2022, 1,000 participants (250 teams) took part in a three-day challenge for cash prizes worth 700,000 SAR in the Capture the Flag competition.[19][20]

The event conducted the Cyber Seed Start-up Competition with a $25,000 prize fund which gave the start-ups the opportunity to showcase their solutions and technologies to a panel of judges and compete for a prize fund.[21]