Black Hat Middle East and Africa is the region's flagship cybersecurity event and the largest infosec gathering in the Arab world. Held annually in Riyadh under the global Black Hat brand — a 25-year-old benchmark in offensive and defensive security — the conference is co-organised by Tahaluf in association with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP), and is delivered in support of Saudi Vision 2030's national cyber capability agenda.
Across three intensive days, Black Hat MEA brings together more than 40,000 information security professionals from over 100 countries, 500+ industry-shaping brands, 500+ CISOs, 50+ Black Hat-certified trainers, and 50+ breakthrough startups. The 2026 edition — the fifth since the event launched in Riyadh in 2022 — takes place from 1 to 3 December at the Riyadh Exhibition & Convention Center in Malham.
The programme is built around five core pillars: the Executive Summit for senior decision-makers, the Briefings track where researchers disclose original vulnerabilities and zero-day exploits, the Black Hat Arsenal for live open-source tooling demos, the Business Hall expo floor with hundreds of vendors ranging from global heavyweights to emerging startups, and a hands-on Activity Zone featuring ship-hacking simulations, cyber escape rooms, Capture The Flag and Bug Bounty tournaments with prize pools exceeding SAR 1,000,000.
Past editions have hosted figures such as Dr. Rumman Chowdhury (Humane Intelligence), Devon Bryan (Booking Holdings Global CSO), Dr. Chenxi Wang (Rain Capital), and senior officials from the FBI, CIA, and leading Saudi entities including stc, Aramco, and the Ministry of Investment. Topics span Zero Trust, AI-driven defence, threat intelligence, cloud and identity security, critical infrastructure protection, digital forensics, and offensive security research.
For CISOs, security engineers, policymakers, vendors, and ethical hackers, Black Hat MEA is the regional convergence point — three days that compress months of networking, learning, and business development into a single venue at the heart of the Middle East's cybersecurity ecosystem.
