His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA), has announced that registration is open for the largest cybersecurity event in the region, @Hack, which runs from November 28th to November 30th as part of Riyadh’s 2021 season of activities. In partnership between the GEA, Black Hat and the Saudi Ferderation for Cybersecurity Programming and Drones (SAFCSP).
This global event is the largest cybersecurity event in the region and will be held at the Riyadh Front Expo Centre, one of the central entertainment areas in Riyadh. The location is one of the most rich and attractive places for extraordinary events, and this will bring the world’s best cyber security innovators to showcase their defensive and offensive technologies.
“We are just a week away from hosting the region’s largest cybersecurity event and registrations are still open for anyone interested in attending. It is one of the largest Infosec events ever organized and brings some of the world’s most renowned cybersecurity experts to Saudi Arabia. It is a valuable opportunity for IT and technology professionals to collaborate and learn from each other on the latest developments in the field of cybersecurity,” said Faisal Al-Khamisi, Chairman, SAFCSP.
The event, which is being held for the first time in the Kingdom, includes unique activities to transfer expertise and develop the field of cybersecurity. It will host experts from Offensive Security (trainers of the FBI) for training in information security, while running the largest “Capture the Flag” challenge of its kind in MENA, and the challenge of the “BugBounty platform” with one million riyals prize pool.
@Hack will also host a wide range of training courses in cybersecurity for several different levels and as well as the “Executive Summit” in which C-Level leaders of multinational companies from around the world gather to transfer their expertise and knowledge in the field and build professional relationships. The event will include som eof the world’s leading cyber brands including Spire Solutions, Cisco, IBM, Trendmicro, STC, Security Matterz, Infoblox
Palo Alto, Attivo Networks, and Fortinet, alongside 50+ bleeding edge cyber startups showcasing their solutions
The event will witness @Hack Challenges, which are competitions based around cybersecurity with prizes worth up to 1,000,000 riyals. These will be divided into two challenges that will continue throughout the event. The first is Capture the Flag, a competition between the top 1000 participants divided into teams, who will be eliminated in a mini challenge in the first two days of the event. The BugBounty Platform challenge takes place on the first day of the event and lasts for eight continuous hours, with the participation of the best 80 security researchers in the various platforms in the region. They will compete to solve and discover vulnerabilities for the companies participating in the challenge. The winners will be announced on the last day of the event.
“@HACK is a unique opportunity for anyone interested in the cybersecurity field and will bring together professionals from across the region and around the world. As the threats posed by cybersecurity continue to evolve those that attend the event will be able to gain invaluable knowledge from global experts, see the latest cutting-edge technology in action and network with industry figures in person,” said Mike Champion, Regional Executive Vice President of Informa Markets. He added, at its launch @Hack is 3x larger than any other regional cyber security event and has attained the amazing feat of being one of the largest in the world – only in Saudi Arabia could this happen, a country that is experiencing one of the most rapid and remarkable digital transformations anywhere.
The official announcement of the event came last August, as part of the largest tech launch of its kind in the MENA region – LaunchKSA – where the Kingdom announced a number of exceptional initiatives and technical programs. These are focused on enhancing digital capabilities, achieving the Kingdom’s goal of having a programmer out of every 100 Saudis by 2030, encouraging innovation and creativity, and reaching global leadership.
This comes as an interpretation of the guidance of the Crown Prince, HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, and to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom’s vision to seize the opportunities of the digital economy.
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