Maria Varmazis is a marketing freelancer and writer for cybersecurity companies around the world, and the co-host of the "Sticky Pickles" podcast.
She is also your favorite Trekkie.
Maria Varmazis has been a guest on 37 episodes.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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).
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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!
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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.