What’s Saudi Arabia’s role in the future of cybersecurity?

At Black Hat MEA 2024 we asked cybersecurity leaders what role they think Saudi Arabia will play in the future of cybersecurity. 

The short answer to encompass all of their responses would probably be: a very significant role. Because as a nation, Saudi Arabia is putting cybersecurity at the centre of its strategic vision; and in doing so, showing others that security is one of the critical elements to enable future success across industries and social life. 

Here’s what just a few of our interviewees said, in their own words. 

A vision for the future and a strategic location for cybersecurity collaboration 

Chris Carter (aka Umar - Head of Cybersecurity at Captive Resources) said he thinks Saudi Arabia is playing “an incredibly amazing part” in the future of cybersecurity. “As you know, Vision 2030 is incredible,” he added, “and I think when the world understands that vision, they’re going to be amazed by it. In cybersecurity, bringing a lot of women into the field, leveling the playing field and making it easier for people from different backgrounds to get involved in cybersecurity – the vision is futuristic, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s realised.” 

Sounil Yu (CTO and Chief AI Safety officer at Knostic) said: 

“I think Saudi Arabia has an interesting place in the future of cybersecurity, being somewhat at the crossroads of various countries, and especially a rising area like Africa that’s growing in a lot of cyber capabilities as well. I think the opportunity to bring together people from this entire region creates a lot of possibilities, including the potential to be able to tap into the knowledge of that workforce; as well as to unleash those ideas that we need to be able to share across the community.” 

According to Adam Holland (CISO at Wendy’s), Saudi Arabia’s government is living up to its historical roots as a strategic meeting point – “The thousands of years that we’ve crossed these lands to come together…they’re facilitating that,” he said. 

“But they’re doing a tremendous job of thinking forward and beyond; the next next thing that we need. They’re innovating, they’re not waiting to see what’s created but are stepping out to create it themselves and then bringing the rest of us along, as a community, to benefit from it.” 

When we asked Ramy Houssaini (Chair of the Cyber Poverty Line Institute) for his perspective, he noted that the nation “has actually built a very interesting set of capabilities that are important to develop a nascent cybersecurity industry with scale, with impact, with the capacity to reach global frontiers.” 

“So I believe Saudi Arabia can be a meeting point for a lot of the cyber forces of the region,” he said, “where collaboration and innovation can take place; and where frankly, energy can actually be unleashed for the new generation to look at cybersecurity as a field that can enable the digital age and allow us to safely deploy innovation.” 

And Jaya Baloo (COO and Co-founder at Stealth Startup) believes Saudi Arabia is pushing the envelope on cybersecurity in a number of different ways. “There’s a unique threat profile, there is a lot of capacity to build new solutions, so I think there’s actually a genuinely unique capability here to examine cybersecurity that you don’t have everywhere else in the world.”

Black Hat plays a key role in Saudi Arabia’s cybersecurity development 

For many of the practitioners we spoke to, the presence of Black Hat itself in Riyadh is absolutely key to Saudi Arabia’s role in the future of cyber. 

“I think it’s super impressive that this is the biggest Black Hat in the world, with 40,000 people and more,” said Ning Wang (CEO at Offsec). “I came here three years ago, and this is bigger than it was then. I think it’s good to lead the world with this kind of size and impact to make everyone realise that cybersecurity is important. It impacts everybody’s life.” 

Gary Hayslip (Global CISO at Softbank Investment Advisors) agreed that the presence of Black Hat MEA is really important for the region. “It’s a different thing if I was being told, come to Black Hat MEA and there will be…maybe 5,000 people…or come and there are over 40,000 people here.”

“And just the type of people you meet, the companies that come here; you can tell it’s important to Saudi Arabia and they understand not just the technologies but as a region, how cyber is going to help them.” 

For Ashish Shrestha (Group CISO for Jaguar Land Rover) our 2024 event was his first time in Saudi Arabia. He said that in the broader context of the Middle East, the key to driving forward the future is to become that technology hub – to bring the region into global view as a tech leader. “It’s really interesting to see how countries like Saudi Arabia are now making a huge leap when it comes to embracing and bringing innovation in the tech space, and certainly the cyber space as well,” he said.  “As a global CISO that excites me.” 

And finally, Allan Alford (CEO at Alford and Adams Consulting) said when it comes to the future of cybersecurity, Saudi Arabia is “doing something very innovative here that I think more nation states need to pick up on.” 

“They are jointly hosting this Black Hat conference. This is now the largest conference in the world, and it couldn’t be done without some nation state backing. The government is tied into supporting this in a very large way, and I think other governments should be doing this around the world.” 

Ultimately, Saudi Arabia is stepping up to support cybersecurity development both locally and internationally. As a nation, there’s a clear understanding that this is critical work – because the resilience of all industries relies on the future of cybersecurity. And as for us at Black Hat MEA; well, we’re very proud to be a part of it. 

Join us at Black Hat MEA 2025 to share your perspective and meet potential partners – and shape the future together.