Speakers To Watch At Black Hat MEA 2025: INTERPOL’s Bjørn Watne

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 one of the most anticipated voices on stage will be Bjørn Watne, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at INTERPOL. 

At  INTERPOL, the world’s largest police organization that connects 196 member countries to combat transnational crime, Watne’s role revolves around safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the organization’s global information systems, ensuring that sensitive law enforcement data can be exchanged securely across borders. It’s a role that places him in a unique position to assess the realities of the cybersecurity domain today, and according to Watne, one of the most common misconceptions about it is that it is primarily a technology problem. “It isn’t,” he points out. "It's a leadership and risk management discipline. Another misconception is that compliance equals security; in reality, compliance is the floor, not the ceiling.”  

But despite such misconceptions, Watne tells us that today, we are slowly but surely witnessing a paradigm shift in how the industry is perceived by—and integrated into—organizations. “Globally, we’re seeing cybersecurity firmly established as a business-critical function, not just an information technology (IT) discipline,” he says. “The growing use of artificial intelligence (AI)—by both defenders and adversaries—is further reshaping threat dynamics. Supply-chain attacks, data sovereignty concerns, and resilience against geopolitical risk are now boardroom priorities.”  

As such, Watne notes that the biggest opportunities in cybersecurity today lie in automation, threat intelligence enrichment, behavioral analytics, and secure AI adoption. “We’re also seeing significant innovation around identity security, zero trust architectures, and resilience engineering—bridging the gap between prevention and rapid recovery,” he adds.  Zooming in on the Middle East, he notes that the region’s cybersecurity industry is seeing quick uptake of innovative solutions to keep up with the “extraordinary” pace of change, with events like Black Hat MEA making it clear that the industry is a national priority for governments here.   

“The region’s rapid digitalization and the rise of sovereign cloud and fintech ecosystems have elevated cybersecurity to a national and economic imperative,” Watne says. “By attending events like Black Hat MEA and simply [wandering] around and [looking] at everything that’s happening, it’s quite apparent that governments and enterprises alike are investing in advanced detection, intelligence sharing, and capability building—turning the region into a proving ground for next-generation security models.” 

Watne also highlights that Saudi Arabia, in its efforts to accelerate digitalization, is quickly becoming a hub for global cybersecurity innovation. “What’s happening in the MENA right now, and especially in Saudi Arabia, is remarkable,” he says. “Cybersecurity has been elevated to a matter of national strategy, integral to Vision 2030 and the broader digital-transformation agenda. The region combines strong regulatory direction with ambitious investment, deep public-private collaboration, and a growing talent base. There’s an energy here—an intent to leapfrog legacy approaches and build world-class capabilities that integrate AI, cloud, and risk analytics from the outset. This forward-looking mindset is what makes the region such a powerful force in global cybersecurity innovation.” 

As such, Watne will take to the stage three times at Black Hat MEA this year, tackling topics that he believes lie at the core of the future of cybersecurity, shedding light on where cyber threats are headed, and how the community can respond with both resilience and pragmatism. “In the session titled ‘Cyber Superpowers: Money, Crime, and Control in a Fractured World,’ we’ll examine how power, money, and crime now collide in the digital realm—and what ‘control’ truly means in a world where everything is connected and contested,” he shares. “In ‘Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) from Code to Cartel,’ we’ll dissect how ransomware has evolved into a mature, profit-driven criminal ecosystem, and share grounded, realistic strategies defenders can use to limit its impact. And in my keynote, ‘Lessons from the Field: The Personal Security Habits Cyber Pros Actually Use,’ I’ll shift gears to something more personal—the everyday security routines that professionals rely on to protect themselves and their families. No theory, just what actually works.”  

Catch Watne 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 Bjørn Watne, CISO, INTERPOL. Image courtesy Bjørn Watne.