Black Hat MEA 2025 returns to Riyadh from 18–20 November 2025 as the region’s undisputed pinnacle of offensive and defensive cybersecurity research. Hosted at the Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Center and powered by Tahaluf – the premier Exhibition Company in Saudi Arabia – this year’s edition expands to three full days, eight technical tracks, and over 180 cutting-edge Briefings, Arsenal demonstrations, and closed-door trainings. More than 25,000 senior security practitioners, government decision-makers, and ethical researchers from 120+ countries will converge to confront the rapidly evolving threat landscape unique to the Middle East and Africa.

Nation-State Evolution: From Espionage to Critical Infrastructure Sabotage

Regional nation-state actors have dramatically escalated both capability and intent since 2024. Intelligence agencies and attendees will openly discuss previously unattributed campaigns that successfully achieved multi-month persistence inside oil & gas SCADA environments, financial SWIFT messaging systems, and 5G core networks across the GCC and Levant.

Additionally, new toolkits blending living-off-the-land techniques with custom silicon-level implants now enable attackers to survive firmware rewrites and OS reinstallations. For the first time, Black Hat MEA will feature a dedicated Closed-Door Nation-State Summit where regional CERT leads and Five-Eyes representatives share indicators of compromise under Traffic Light Protocol (TLP:AMBER+). Researchers will further unveil zero-day chains targeting Saudi-manufactured industrial IoT controllers that power 40% of the region’s desalination capacity.