Maria Varmazis

270: Bearded Barbie, EDR scams, and hobbyist crime detectives

April 14th, 2022  |  51 mins 1 sec

barbie, catfishing, data breach, dna, edr, facebook, hamas, israel, malware, police

Pulchritudinous women with glossy long hair are targeting Israeli officials via Facebook - but why? Scammers have found a new way to gain access to your most sensitive information - but how? And armchair detectives are helping investigating cold cases involving DNA - but should they?

260: New hire mystery, hacktivist ransomware, and digi-dating

February 3rd, 2022  |  47 mins 40 secs

belarus, dating, insider threat, ransomware, remote working, russia, ukraine

Who's that new guy working at your company, and why don't you recognise him from the interview? How are hacktivists raising the heat in Belarus? And should you be fully vaxxed for your online date?

247: Rickrolling submarine secrets

October 14th, 2021  |  49 mins 49 secs

data leak, espionage, facebook, instagram, nick clegg, rick astley, submarine, us navy

A married couple are accused of selling nuclear sub secrets, Facebook continues to make young lives a misery, and a school hacker lets loose one heck of a prank.

241: Flipping dating apps, and crypto rewards for criminals

September 2nd, 2021  |  47 mins 40 secs

afghanistan, biometrics, bitcoin, bumble, cryptocurrency, dating apps, privacy, stalking, taliban

How to find your match on the Bumble dating app, convicted criminals make money out of cryptocurrency, and there are concerns about data in Afghanistan.

232: Zoomolympics and language matters

June 17th, 2021  |  50 mins 39 secs

blacklist, coq, data breach, ea games, electronic arts, ioc, japan, olympics, videogames, whitelist

Video gaming giant Electronic Arts suffers a hack following slack security, the Japanese Olympics are proving unpopular with everyone apart from cybercriminals, and le coq est mort.

223: Booze, nudes, and insurance dudes

April 15th, 2021  |  51 mins 34 secs

alcohol, domain, insurance, malware, motor vehicle, phishing, ransomware, scam, wine

Should insurance companies be banned from helping companies pay ransomware demands? How has malware messed with motorcars in the United States? And how are cybercriminals exploiting alcohol drinking during the pandemic?

212: Dutch leaks, Peeping Toms, and researchers under fire

January 28th, 2021  |  44 mins 12 secs

apt, cctv, coronavirus, data breach, google, malware, netherlands, north korea, privacy, surveillance, vulnerability

Google warns security researchers that North Korean hackers are pretending to be their buddies, sensitive information connected to Coronavirus testing is available for sale in the Netherlands, and is a Peeping Tom at your home security provider spying on you through CCTV?

209: Vengeful ex-staff, bad Santas, and iOS app nutrition facts

December 17th, 2020  |  1 hr 5 secs

amazon aws, apple, christmas, cisco, ios, opera, privacy, rogue employee, santa, scam, zodiac killer

Watch out for Santas wearing hoodies! A rogue employee takes down WebEx for thousands of people, and Apple forces apps to show a privacy health warning.

200: Two flipping hundred

October 15th, 2020  |  1 hr 11 mins

ballet, career, cyber, cybersecurity, cybersex, fatima, privacy, smart watch, women

We're in celebratory mood as we celebrate our 200th episode, but there's still time to discuss Fatima the ballerina who the UK government wants to become a cybersecurity expert, why women are quitting the tech industry, and a smartwatch which might be putting your kids at risk.

187: Huawei ban, MGM hack, and a contact-tracing cock-up

July 16th, 2020  |  1 hr 3 mins

contact tracing, coronavirus, data breach, huawei, mgm resorts, password, seminconductors

Login chaos for England's contact tracing service, our drill-down on the Britain's Huawei 5G ban, MGM's blockbuster breach, and how to pronounce "Gigabyte."

183: MAMILs, gameshows, and a surprise from eBay

June 18th, 2020  |  46 mins 18 secs

bahrain, coronavirus, ebay, fitness trackers, mars, noel edmonds, privacy, strava, tracing, twitter

A TV gameshow with cash prizes if you're obeying Coronavirus lockdown rules, ex-Ebay staff charged in crazy cyberstalking case, and when the wrong cyclist was accused by the internet bearing pitchforks.

175: Zoom deepfakes, Zardoz, and 'Rona tracing

April 23rd, 2020  |  49 mins 45 secs

coronavirus, deepfakes, facebook, privacy, surveillance, tracking, zardoz, zoom

Will deepfake disguises hit a video conference near you, can Coronavirus-tracing apps be trusted, and should Facebook shut down anti-quarantine events?

169: Burglaries, breaches, and bidets

March 12th, 2020  |  51 mins 5 secs

burglary, coronavirus, data breach, google, location data, microsoft, ultimate chicken horse, virgin media

How one guy's exercise routine made him a burglary suspect, how multi-factor authentication can cause headaches as well as stop hacks, and how Virgin Media got itself in a pickle over its sloppy data security.

160: SNAFUs! MS Word, Amazon Ring, and TikTok

January 9th, 2020  |  53 mins 6 secs

amazon, amazon ring, dracula, fraud, microsoft word, ricky gervais, the witcher, tiktok

We discuss how Microsoft Word helped trap a multi-million dollar fraudster, how Amazon Ring may be recording more than you're comfortable with, and how teens are flocking to TikTok (and why that might be a problem).

157: A biometric knuckle duster

December 5th, 2019  |  1 hr 5 mins

biometrics, disney+, fingerprint, hacking, kaspersky, nordvpn, vpn

What is Kaspersky's ugly ring for? Is there something suspicious about how NordVPN lets you stream Disney+? And why did a hacker impersonate a music producer?

Plus we have a bonus feature interview with Rachael Stockton from Logmein, the folks behind LastPass, all about behavioral biometrics!

148: Billboard boobs, face forensics, and Alexa gets way too personal

October 3rd, 2019  |  50 mins 24 secs

alexa, amazon, billboard, deepfake, hacking, porn, privacy

Drivers are distracted by a hacked billboard, Maria takes a deeper look at how the deepfake problem has... uh... deepened, and Carole is less than happy about Amazon's announcement about new Alexa integrations.