During the 3-day event, Nile's industry-leading secure network-as-a-service (NaaS) also provided uninterrupted high-performance and secure connectivity for the world's largest Capture the Flag cybersecurity competition

Nile, an industry leader for secure, autonomous Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), today announced that it had successfully powered the Black Hat Middle East & Africa (MEA) 2025, held December 2–4 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Selected by Black Hat MEA to run the conference-wide network, Nile delivered secure and high-performance autonomous connectivity supporting over 40,000 attendees, more than 450 exhibitors, and the event’s flagship Capture the Flag (CTF) contest, the world’s largest cybersecurity competition.

Nawaf Alanazi, Network Manager at Black Hat MEA said: "Black Hat MEA is a premier cybersecurity event attended by over 40,000 of the most prominent security professionals. We selected Nile as the secure connectivity provider after rigorous due diligence. Nile’s Secure NaaS service performed flawlessly, delivering high-performance, secure connectivity and an excellent user experience in a highly demanding environment. The three-day event passed off without a hitch and the conference was a tremendous success."

During the three-day event, Nile’s network demonstrated excellent Wi-Fi 6E coverage, validated through third-party performance tools and positive attendee feedback. As an additional validation, a third party conducted a three-hour penetration test of the Nile infrastructure and service during the event and identified no security risks.

A highlight at Black Hat MEA each year is its Capture the Flag, a multi-day hacking competition, where ethical hackers compete to find "flags" (hidden data) by solving complex challenges in web, forensics, crypto, and reverse engineering, serving as a major platform for hands-on training, skill demonstration, and fostering cybersecurity talent in the region and globally. This year, Nile’s network supported over 700 Capture the Flag participants with approximately 1,000 wired ports. Nile’s Zero Trust Fabric consisted of two distribution switches, 22 NSW1000 access switches, 40 Wi-Fi 6E access points and 100 Gbps uplinks.

“Nile’s role at Black Hat MEA 2025 highlights how AI-powered, Zero Trust networking can meet the demands of large-scale, mission-critical environments — from global conferences to enterprise campuses — with autonomous simplicity and security,” said Pankaj Patel, Co-Founder and CEO of Nile. “By delivering autonomous operations, built-in Zero Trust enforcement, and guaranteed performance, Nile helped Black Hat MEA to focus on what mattered most: advancing cybersecurity knowledge and hands-on learning at global scale.”

Nile’s performance at Black Hat follows the company’s recent participation at the Wild West Hackin’ Fest in Deadwood, South Dakota, where hundreds of cybersecurity professionals tested their skills in a live Capture the Flag challenge. Participants were invited to join the Nile wired and wireless network — with default configurations and no added security tools — and attempt to compromise a Windows 11 laptop on the same subnet. Over one million cyberattacks failed to penetrate Nile’s Zero Trust Fabric during the challenge.

Additional Resources

Blog post: How Nile’s Zero Trust Architecture Performed at the Wild West Hackin’ Fest

About Nile

Nile is a pioneer and leader in secure networking-as-a-service (NaaS). It's leading a fundamental shift in the industry with a focus on AI-powered service delivery and autonomous operations. Nile solutions cut through complexity and cost versus legacy networking solutions, while delivering radical operational simplicity and user experiences for local area branch and campus environments. For more information, visit nilesecure.com.

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