The best cybersecurity podcasts in 2026 are Darknet Diaries, Risky Business, CyberWire Daily, Security Now and Smashing Security. Between them you get true hacking stories, weekly industry news and interviews, a weekday news briefing, multi-hour technical breakdowns and a lighter weekly panel, so most listeners pair one story show with one news show.
Built This Week is our show. It isn't a security podcast, so we list it at the end as "Also from us," unranked. Here's how we picked the rest.
Jack Rhysider hosts Darknet Diaries, which tells true stories from the dark side of the internet: hacking, data breaches and cybercrime. It publishes about monthly, with four episodes in the last 90 days as of October 2026, and episodes usually run about 68 minutes; its feed goes back to September 2017. Recent episodes are titled by subject, such as "Conti," "Ubiquiti" and "National Public Data," and there is also a Spanish-language version.
It is the best on-ramp for newcomers and a favorite for practitioners who like a well-told incident story.
Start with: How to Get Someone's Password (1.1M views on YouTube as of October 2026). Full profile of Darknet Diaries.
Risky Business, from Risky Business Media, is a weekly information security podcast with news and in-depth interviews; the show's own description says it launched in February 2007. It publishes weekly, as of October 2026, and episodes usually run about 60 minutes, matching its own promise of a "pacy" show of 50 to 60 minutes. Alongside numbered news episodes, the feed carries "Soap Box" interview episodes, such as a recent one with HD Moore on OT security.
It suits security professionals who want one dense weekly news digest.
Start with: Soap Box: Knocknoc glues your SSO to your firewalls for Just-in-Time network access (41K views on YouTube as of October 2026). Full profile of Risky Business.
CyberWire Daily, from N2K Networks, offers daily cybersecurity news and analysis, published each weekday, with interviews with experts from industry, academia and research organizations. It is daily, with about 96 episodes in the last 90 days as of October 2026, and episodes usually run about 28 minutes. Its feed goes back to December 2015, and Saturdays bring "Research Saturday" episodes.
It is the pick for a short, daily security briefing on the commute.
Start with: A very real-world AI test. (1K views on YouTube as of October 2026). Full profile of CyberWire Daily.
Steve Gibson joins Leo Laporte every Tuesday on Security Now, from the TWiT network, to break down the latest cybercrime and hacking stories and explain how to protect yourself and your business. It is weekly, as of October 2026, and it is the longest show here: episodes usually run about 169 minutes. Episode numbers are past 1,100, and recent titles focus on AI as an attacker and agentic attacks.
It suits listeners who want long, detailed technical explanations rather than a quick summary.
Start with: Leaving LastPass - How LastPass failed, Steve's next password manager, how to protect yourself (49K views on YouTube as of October 2026). Full profile of Security Now.
Graham Cluley, a cybersecurity keynote speaker and industry veteran, hosts Smashing Security, with weekly tales of cybercrime, hacking, privacy blunders and tech mishaps told with a sense of humour. It is weekly, as of October 2026, with episodes of about 50 minutes, and its feed goes back to December 2016. Recent titles include a crypto wallet that "came with a spy inside" and a ransomware negotiator arrested at his own conference.
It is the lightest listen on this list, and a good one to share with non-security colleagues.
Start with: The Epstein Files didn't hide this hacker very well (15K views on YouTube as of October 2026). Full profile of Smashing Security.
A few AI shows we cover have run security-focused episodes recently, useful if you care about where AI and security meet. In October 2026, No Priors interviewed CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on adversaries armed with AI agents and Cloudflare CTO Dane Knecht on security for the agentic web. Practical AI published Exploit Development, Agentic Vulnerability Discovery, and Fake PoCs the same month. These are general AI shows, not security shows, so we didn't rank them.
Built This Week, hosted by Jordan Metzner and Sam Nadler, is a weekly AI show; its one security-focused episode is Episode 28 with Sagi Waitzman of aviation cybersecurity company Cyviation, where Sam built a flight ops cyber radar dashboard.
Schedules and lengths are as of October 2026. Related lists: the best tech news podcasts, the best tech podcasts and the best coding podcasts, or see all our podcast lists.
Darknet Diaries, Risky Business, CyberWire Daily, Security Now and Smashing Security. Darknet Diaries tells long-form true stories, Risky Business and Security Now cover the week's security news in depth, CyberWire Daily is a weekday briefing and Smashing Security is a lighter weekly show.
Yes. CyberWire Daily from N2K Networks publishes each weekday, with about 96 episodes in the last 90 days as of October 2026, and episodes usually run about 28 minutes.
Jack Rhysider hosts Darknet Diaries. It publishes about monthly (four episodes in the last 90 days, as of October 2026), and episodes usually run about 68 minutes.
Darknet Diaries and Smashing Security are the most accessible: one tells true stories about hacking, data breaches and cybercrime, the other covers cybercrime and privacy blunders with a sense of humour. Risky Business and Security Now assume more background.
Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte is long: episodes usually run about 169 minutes, released weekly on Tuesdays, as of October 2026.
