Speakers To Watch At Black Hat MEA 2025: HUGO BOSS’ Stefan Baldus

The who's who of the global cybersecurity landscape is coming together in Saudi Arabia for the fourth edition of Black Hat MEA running from December 2-4, 2025 in Riyadh, and a highlight on this year’s stage will be Stefan Baldus, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at HUGO BOSS. 

Baldus, who has been with the Italian fashion giant for the past 14 years, today oversees the company’s second line of defense, which includes strategy, budget, architecture, and risk and governance. Given his experience, Baldus suggests that the biggest misconception about cybersecurity today is that it is only an IT risk. “It’s not,” he declares, while explaining that with the democratization of information technology and the proliferation of software as a service (SaaS), businesses need to understand that “in the event of failure, IT can’t help.” As such, cybersecurity has become imperative for enterprises to support initiatives around business continuity management and resilience.  

This, Baldus says, makes it key for leaders to keep their eye on the latest trends in cybersecurity today, pointing to threats arising from the prevalence of artificial intelligence (AI) and supply chain attacks. One of the greatest risks, he points out, is not bringing operations' teams up to speed on how to respond to attacks. “As attackers are more and more weaponizing AI against companies, your security operations center needs to be fast and agile to respond," he says. "Attackers will use AI against you and will take over the companies much faster than years ago.” 

But in spite of the significant risk that comes with increasing AI penetration, Baldus also believes that it will be the source of the next true innovation in the industry. “The upcoming next ‘big’ thing in cybersecurity I see is around making the AI actually work, and getting the things done [as] promised," he says. "Currently, AI is still learning the patterns, the logs of security systems as such, but once the data is big enough, I think AI-driven security operations center or response systems actually can bring real value to companies.” 

Baldus will take to the stage twice at Black Hat MEA 2025 to discuss how to secure organizations in the age of AI, the role of agentic AI, as well as to address topics related to supply chain security. Through a deep dive presentation titled “High-ROI Defences for Low-Resource Teams,” he will share his own experiences of how cybersecurity leaders working on limited budgets can be successful and support their organizations through the current risks. 

As Baldus thus gets set to participate in Black Hat MEA this year, he tells Inc. Arabia that he sees the environment around cybersecurity in the MENA region, and particularly in Saudi Arabia, as a reflection of a community that is open and willing to contribute and learn, and to be part of bringing cybersecurity to the next level. “Saudi Arabia isn't just 'updating' its infrastructure; with Vision 2030, they are building entire digital economies from the ground up," he points out. "It’s no longer just about buying firewalls; it’s about cyber-sovereignty. If [you] build smart cities like NEOM from scratch, you have to invent new security frameworks that simply don't exist yet—and Black Hat MEA will help to shape and talk about such frameworks next level."

Catch Baldus at this year's edition of Black Hat MEA, the world’s largest gathering of cybersecurity professionals, taking place from 2-4 December, 2025, at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham.  Inc. Arabia is a Media Partner for Black Hat MEA; register  to attend the event by clicking here.   

Pictured in the lead image is Stefan Baldus, Chief Information Security Officer of HUGO BOSS. Image courtesy of Stefan Baldus.