Available to book
Misha Glenny
Cybersecurity
Global Issues
Geopolitics
Transform security strategies with Misha Glenny, speaker, cybersecurity and organised crime expert. Misha works with governments and corporations to decode transnational crime networks and cyber threats, delivering award-winning insights backed by his acclaimed books McMafia and DarkMarket.
Journalist
Broadcaster
Author
Academic
Columbia University
Anthropologist
Police
BBC
Digital Expert
Misha Glenny is an award-winning journalist who made a name for himself as the BBC’s Central Europe Correspondent covering the 1989 revolutions and the wars in the former Yugoslavia. He has a Sony Gold Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting and won BT’s Information Security Journalist of The Year.
Governments and law enforcement agencies regularly consult Misha in Europe and the Americas on the Balkans and Eastern Europe, transnational organised crime, and cyber security. He is also a regular contributor to major publications in Europe, North America, and Japan.
His books McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime and DarkMarket: How Hackers Became the New Mafia were shortlisted for several prizes. His most recent book, Nemesis: One Man and the Battle for Rio, is a biography of the former head of a Brazilian cocaine cartel, whom Misha interviewed at length in prison. Nemesis is also in production as a Hollywood feature film. In 2026, Misha took over from Lord Melvyn Bragg as the presenter of the long running and much-loved ‘university of the airwaves’, BBC radio’s In Our Time.
Misha can speak on all aspects of organised crime, from money laundering to cyber malfeasance, people smuggling, and the drug trade. He has unique insights into how new technology reshapes traditional organised crime in the narcotics, smuggling and sex trades. He also draws on his background in geopolitics to show how great power relations drive insecurity in cyberspace and why companies cannot rely on the government to shore up their vulnerabilities.
Misha recently served as a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute, where he taught a course on crime, corruption, and economic transition. For his work there, he was voted the best lecturer at SIPA. Misha has also taught at the London School of Economics. Currently, Misha is the Rector of the IWM (Institute for Human Sciences) in Vienna.
Topics, sessions and talks
Misha Glenny draws on forty years of reporting from the front lines of global upheaval, from the fall of communism to Brexit, Donald Trump, and the accelerating climate crisis. Having spoken directly with figures ranging from Bill Clinton to Vladimir Putin, and Slobodan Milosevic to Boris Johnson, he traces the forces reshaping the world order and offers a clear-eyed read on the risks ahead, along with practical thinking on how leaders can navigate an unpredictable geopolitical landscape.
Misha Glenny argues that the strongest firewall is useless if the people behind it are not equally secure. Drawing on interviews with criminal hackers and intelligence agents, he reveals the social engineering tactics that let attackers walk through the front door rather than break down the wall, and explains why cyber threats sit at the centre of a wider geopolitical struggle between the US, Europe, Russia, and China. He shows businesses how to close the human gap in their defences.
Misha Glenny unpacks why central governments regard cryptocurrencies as such a threat, and what blockchain, bitcoin, and Web 3.0 actually mean beyond the hype. He takes audiences into the darker corners of these technologies, from money laundering to the criminal networks that have exploited them, before turning to the practical implications for companies and individuals. Along the way, Misha explains what the coming battle over digital currency could mean for the wider world.
Misha Glenny turns to his acclaimed television series McMafia to trace how organised crime became a global industry and how some of the world's biggest banks, including HSBC, Barclays, and Deutsche Bank, were duped by sophisticated money launderers. He reveals the mechanics behind turning criminal profits into clean cash and the scale of the networks involved. Misha closes with a warning about what happens if the financial sector fails to take the threat seriously enough.
Book Misha to gain unparalleled insights into global organised crime, cybersecurity, and geopolitical dynamics. His expertise, drawn from award-winning journalism and consulting with top law enforcement agencies, will enrich your team's understanding of complex threats. Learn how new technology impacts traditional crime and improve your strategic security and risk management approach.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email misha.glenny@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Misha's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Misha Glenny structures his sessions around direct-source interviews — with criminal hackers, intelligence agents, cartel leaders, and heads of state — using what those individuals told him to ground geopolitical and security analysis in first-hand testimony rather than abstraction.
Misha Glenny speaks on geopolitics and world order, cybersecurity and human vulnerability, and cryptocurrency, blockchain, and digital crime. He is an award-winning journalist and former BBC Central Europe Correspondent who covered the 1989 revolutions and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, holds a Sony Gold Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting, and in 2026 became the presenter of BBC Radio's In Our Time.
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