Anja Shortland
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Anja Shortland

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Anja Shortland is a Professor in Political Economy at King’s College London. She studied Engineering Science at Oxford and then for an MSc in Political Economy and PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics. Anja's teaching and research is in the economics of crime, where she specialises in extortive crime: hostage-taking, piracy, stolen art and ransomware. She is fascinated by the people who help victims navigate the world’s trickiest trades and most complex and hostile territories: private security firms, crisis responders, ransom negotiators, insurers and various go-betweens who deliver cash and extract hostages. Her research in this economic grey zone has uncovered several highly effective (partly criminal and partly legal) ecosystems bridging the gap between legal enterprises and the criminal underworld. Her first book Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business focused on the market for hostages and her second book Lost Art: The Art Loss Register's Case Book on the retrieval or restitution of stolen and looted art. Anja latest book: We Know Can Pay A Million: Inside the Dark Economy of Hacking and Ransomware will be released by Profile Books in the UK in early April 2026. The book will be published in the US by Public Affairs under the title Dark Screens: Hackers and Heroes in the Shadowy World of Ransomware.
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