Nile’s Secure NaaS Records Zero Incidents Supporting 40,000 at Black Hat MEA 2025
Nile, a leader in autonomous Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), successfully powered the connectivity for Black Hat Middle East & Africa (MEA) 2025 in Riyadh. Supporting over 40,000 attendees and the world’s largest Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, the deployment demonstrated the resilience of AI-driven, Zero Trust architectures in high-density, high-risk environments.
The Core Development: Flawless Performance in a Hostile Environment
During the three-day event held from December 2–4, Nile’s network infrastructure provided uninterrupted connectivity for 450 exhibitors and 40,000 security professionals. The deployment was subjected to rigorous real-world stress tests, including a three-hour third-party penetration test that identified zero security risks.
The network specifically supported the flagship CTF contest, providing approximately 1,000 wired ports for over 700 elite ethical hackers. Despite the concentration of specialized talent and high-intensity data demands, Nile reported zero service disruptions or security breaches across its Zero Trust Fabric.
Strategic Impact: Proving NaaS at Enterprise Scale
The success at Black Hat MEA 2025 highlights a critical shift in enterprise networking. By moving away from “legacy spaghetti” architectures—characterized by manual patching and complex VLAN configurations—Nile demonstrated that autonomous operations can eliminate the human error often responsible for network downtime.
This deployment follows a similar challenge at the Wild West Hackin’ Fest, where Nile’s Zero Trust Fabric successfully repelled over one million cyberattacks. For the broader industry, this suggests that integrated security and networking—delivered as a utility—is becoming a viable replacement for traditional, fragmented hardware stacks.
Key Features & Technical Details: The Zero Trust Fabric
The infrastructure at the Riyadh International Convention and Exhibition Center was built on a “security first, communicate later” philosophy. Technical specifications for the event included:
- Infrastructure: Two distribution switches, 22 NSW1000 access switches, and 40 Wi-Fi 6E access points.
- Capacity: 100 Gbps uplinks supporting a “segment of one” architecture for every connected device.
- Security: Native micro-segmentation and identity-based access, preventing lateral movement within the network.
- Validation: Continuous performance telemetry and third-party validation of Wi-Fi 6E coverage.
The Future of Autonomous Networking
According to Nile CEO Pankaj Patel, the event serves as a blueprint for large-scale, mission-critical environments. By automating management and building security directly into the hardware fabric, the company aims to allow organizations to focus on their core mission rather than network maintenance. The Riyadh deployment proves that even the most targeted environments can remain secure through autonomous, zero-trust engineering.
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.
