Johnny Depp’s Defamation Lawyer Among World-Class Speaker Line-Up At Black Hat MEA
The countdown to Black Hat Middle East & Africa (MEA) is officially underway, with organisers confirming a stellar line-up of regional and international speakers for the cyber industry’s fastest-growing event, taking place at Riyadh Front Exhibition & Conference Centre to accommodate surging exhibitor demand.
Organised by Tahaluf, the Informa LLC joint venture with the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming, & Drones (SAFCSP), the event, taking place November 14-16, will provide a platform for essential insights signposting the future of cybersecurity, its challenges and solutions. The impressive line-up of speakers – more than half of whom are descending on Riyadh from outside the GCC – includes Camille Vasquez, inspirational litigator and Partner in the law firm Brown Rudnick, who played a key role in the defamation case of Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, as well as experts from major security organisations such as the FBI and NATO.
Taking to the stage for two insightful sessions, Camille Vasquez will speak on ‘High Stakes Mastery, From the Courtroom to The Boardroom’, looking at critical litigation and its profound influence on both the legal arena and the corporate world, as well as a ‘Women in Cyber Focus’ panel, which aims at inspiring women and men in the cybersecurity world to act on the importance of diversity and inclusion.
“Cyber experts need to be aware of the crucial role social media, in particular, can now play in trials and the impact it can have”, said Vasquez. “I look forward to sharing some of the insights I’ve learnt working on high-profile cases, especially on maintaining integrity and how to navigate legal challenges while preserving and enhancing an individual or organisation’s image.”
Other notable speakers appearing in Riyadh include Cynthia Kaiser, the FBI’s Deputy Assistant Director, Cyber Division; Vitaly Gudanets, Chief Information Security Officer at Netflix; Keith Enright, Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer at Google; and Latha Maripuri, Chief Information Security Officer at Uber.
Black Hat MEA is set to host more than 330 exhibitors, in excess of 300 speakers, and an anticipated visitor turnout of more than 40,000 infosec and cybersecurity professionals. The location switch comes after event organisers confirmed this year will be 41 per cent bigger than its 2022 launch edition and has already seen a 199 per cent uplift in early-day registration.
“Our mission is always to deliver a world-class experience for our global community,” said Annabelle Mander, Senior Vice President of Tahaluf. “There’s so much at stake for both the public and private sector as the volume and complexity of cybersecurity incidents increase and the issue rises to the top of business and government agendas. To help address this, we have invited an incredible line-up of regional and international speakers to discuss and debate critical touchpoints. With this year’s Black Hat MEA being an impressive 41 per cent bigger than 2022, the event will go a long way to shaping the future of an industry that is constantly experiencing change.”
The event will also host the Black Hat Campus – a content-led environment bringing together vendors, universities, recruiters, and consultancies for firsthand demos, developer-led showcases of the latest open-source tools and products, and engaging cybersecurity activities. The campus, which is open to all levels of cyber skill and supports Saudi Arabia’s ambitions of nurturing the Kingdom’s next generation of cyber leaders, will help delegates understand hacking, safeguarding techniques, ways to enhance their soft skills and personal development, and scale the industry’s recruitment walls.
Black Hat MEA’s Deep Dive Stage will act as a launch pad for investors and startups to converge, foster innovation and collaboration, and empower CISOs to delve deep into current and pressing topics. The stage will explore AI and its use and impact on cyber, the increasing dilemma of ransomware, mental health, well-being, brand building, geopolitics and its impact on cybersecurity, cloud and data privacy, and IT/OT convergence.
Meanwhile, the Activity Zone will be an arena of hyper action where around 250 teams totalling some 1,000 participants will battle it out across a three-day challenge to compete for a share of a US$40,000 cyberseed prize fund and the honour of being the tournament’s winner.
The Activity Zone will also host the Car Hack Village demonstration of how new age, autonomous vehicles, and electronic systems can be hacked and controlled by external parties and the Drone Zone, where visitors can learn how to circumvent a drone’s vulnerability and fly it across an obstacle course. In the Chip Off Village, enthusiasts will discover how to remove embedded EMMC chips from devices for analysis, as well as learn about the latest IoT/mobile device vulnerabilities and how to protect them. The Lockpick Village, meanwhile. will enable visitors to learn firsthand about various locking devices and the techniques which exploit vulnerabilities.
Zone goers will also witness the Bug Bounty Cup – a live competition that brings together selected hunters to conduct bug hunts on real-world companies on the BugBounty.sa platform. The Cyber Escape Room will deliver security awareness training in a fun style using cyber-based puzzles and group tasks to be solved against the clock. There will also be a Smart City Simulation model, giving visitors the chance to try and hack critical information infrastructure assets and explore cyber-attacks and incidents using real-world systems and examples.
Exhibitor and attendee registrations for Black Hat MEA, running from November 14-16 in Riyadh, are open now and can be completed at www.blackhatmea.com.
