Riyadh in mid-November is scheduled to host the international Black Hat event that brings together top global cybersecurity experts and the biggest cybersecurity event in the Middle East and North Africa. The event will be organized in cooperation between the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, and Informa, in partnership with the General Entertainment Authority, within the activities of Riyadh Season 2022, where it is scheduled to kick off on November 15 and will last for three days at the Riyadh Front. Black Hat will attract top experts and speakers in cybersecurity in the presence of more than 200 officials of top institutions of the world, and will see several specialized training courses in the field with accredited certificates, in addition to several sessions and workshops and a lot of competitions with awards reaching over SAR1 million, where the event targets interested people, experts and amateurs in the cybersecurity field. The event includes six main zones: an executive summit dedicated to the region's elite cybersecurity chiefs to discuss the latest developments in the field, and exchange expertise and inspiring experiences with the best experts in the world, and practical experience and technical workshops through which studies and the latest technologies in the field of cybersecurity are presented by leading speakers, in addition to the Arsenal zone that is a space for developers where the latest developments are presented and training courses that are offered by 50 professional trainers. The Black Hat event also includes events that are sponsored by NEOM, including the Capture the Flag that is a hacking tournament in which more than 1,000 contestants of 200 teams from 35 counties participate to enhance their ethical hacking skills at different difficulty levels for a prize of SAR700,000 over three days. Other competitions include the Bug Bounty Cup with cash prizes of SAR300,000 and a startup competition where the best presentations are presented to seasoned judges, angel investors, technology experts and government stakeholders for a cash prize of SAR90,000. The event zone also includes the "Cyber Village", which brings together 6 different challenges, namely the Vehicle Penetration Challenge, which aims to educate security researchers about the functions of vehicle systems as well as providing them with practical experience. The zone also offers the unlock challenge, which is a physical security experience where visitors can identify weaknesses in different locks. Also, there will be the challenge of Escape the Room, a challenge that depends on the team's collaboration as contestants solve a series of puzzles within a limited time frame, where The Smart City Challenge simulates various sectors of infrastructure where security researchers can exploit security gaps in infrastructure installations. The zone also includes the Drones Breakthrough Challenge, a challenge based on competition between two teams as the first team seeks to deliver the largest number of shipments by drone while the other team seeks to carry out various cyber-attacks on drones of the first team. Finally, the Electronic Chips Hacking challenge that gives visitors the opportunity to learn how to hack mobile devices and the Internet of Things and control access to stored data, while the Cyber Seed competition comes within the Business Hall zone, where participating startups will review their business ideas to tech experts and investors to win awards exceeding SAR90,000. Black Hat is a global cybersecurity event launched in 1997, where it is one of the world's most important events for the information security sector and a destination to those interested. It started as an annual event in Las Vegas before moving to many countries of the world. The event comes to the region for the first time this year and will be held in Riyadh, with the aim of exchanging expertise, and reviewing the technology's latest updates in addressing challenges and enhancing cyber skills.
