HITB+CyberWeek 2019, the biggest global HITB event will run from 12-17 October, by bringing the world’s leading thinkers and cyber security experts together in Abu Dhabi for a week-long program of highly interactive and immersive competitions, presentations, trainings, and demonstrations, that organisers believe will lay the foundation for preparing the next generation of cyber warriors.
Dhillon Kannabhiran, Founder and CEO of HITB said “With the launch of HITB+CyberWeek, our core focus is to enrich the UAE’s talent pipeline by equipping aspiring cyber security stars with the knowledge and skills to overcome challenges in our increasingly sophisticated cyber threat landscape.”
DarkMatter Group is the local partner and a Platinum sponsor of the event and commenting about their participation, Rabih Dabboussi, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Sales and Marketing at said “As such, we at DarkMatter Group believe that an event like HITB+CyberWeek brings highly effective and valuable training and workshops to the UAE. We are proud to sponsor the landmark event and to play an active role throughout HITB+CyberWeek. The training classes, workshops, competitions and other programs during HITB+CyberWeek will leave behind lasting positive impact for participants, partners and our clients.”
The Titanium sponsor of the event, Abu Dhabi Digital Authority’s Executive Director Information Security Operation Sector Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Gheyath said “We also acknowledge that the pervasive digital world of today harbors many emerging threats, which pose underlying risk to the secure futures our nation strives towards. With the running of HITB+CyberWeek, the future of safeguarding digital infrastructure, systems, and data bodes well, and we look forward to the excellence and innovation that will emerge to deliver citizens, enterprises, and government entities unparalleled value.”
Featuring cyber professionals as well as students, teachers and families, HITB+CyberWeek will host 5000 visitors during the duration of the week-long event. With over 100 activities to choose from, attendees can enjoy presentations from the ‘best of the best’ speakers and gain knowledge through a series of training labs.
At the heart of the HITB+CyberWeek, a large drawcard will be the Cyber Battle of the Emirates (CBOE) – a training program and hacking competition for high school and university students based in the UAE. This competition will see the winners of Belgium and Germany’s Cyber Security Challenge battling it out against the UAE’s best and brightest.
“We aspire to change the way we teach students in partnership with the private, public and private sector – to be less formulaic and to use more hands-on creative problem solving through real world cyber security challenges. That’s why we’re bringing more than just our cutting edge talks and trainings for professionals to HITB+CyberWeek but also developing specific content and challenges such as Cyber Battle of the Emirates (CBOE) for the wider student population,” adds Kannabhiran.
The winners from the CBOE will win a trip to the HITB Amsterdam in 2020 and will also be eligible to compete with the professional teams in the Pro Capture the Flag (PROCTF), the hacking competition for professionals at HITB+CyberWeek, to be in the running to win US$100,000 in cash.
In total, there will be a US$2 million prize pool up for grabs across a range of competitions including Driven2Pwn, UAE’s first bug bounty event, and an AI Challenge, which calls upon participants to develop future cyber security tools using machine learning advancements.
To register your attendance for HITB+CyberWeek 2019, or to find out more about this progressive and transformative cyber security event, please visit https://cyberweek.ae/