Maria Varmazis

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.

140: Love, PINs, and 8chan

August 8th, 2019  |  54 mins 51 secs

8chan, banking, cloudflare, dating, monzo, passcode, pin, romance scam, the boys

Is the PIN you use for your bank card secure? How did one woman get duped into giving a romance scammer $200,000? And Cloudflare and other online services take aim at a vile corner of the internet...

137: Porn trolling lawyers, Insta hacking, and Ctrl-Alt-LED

July 18th, 2019  |  44 mins 8 secs

hacking, instagram, keyboard, lawyers, porn, vulnerability

Erection your honour! Lawyers find themselves behind bars after they make porn movies in an attempt to scam internet users, boffins in Israel detail a way to steal data from an air-gapped computer, and Instagram coughs up $30,000 after a researcher finds a simple way to hack into anybody's account.

132: CBP cyber attack, an iPhone privacy boost, and Twitter list abuse

June 13th, 2019  |  48 mins 14 secs

apple, cbp, data breach, firestorm, gerry anderson, ios, iphone, troll, twitter

United States Customs and Border Protection had sensitive data stolen, but the hackers didn't have to breach its network. Apple has ambitious plans to make iPhone users safer online. And trolls are using Twitter lists to target their victims.

129: Too Long; Didn't Listen

May 23rd, 2019  |  51 mins 34 secs

2fa, china, google, hackers, phishing, scam, social media

Don't hire a hacker, they might scam you! What works and what doesn't when it comes to protecting your email account? And China's controversial social credit system comes under the microscope.

123: Backups - a necessary evil? (replay)

April 11th, 2019  |  30 mins 45 secs

backups

In this special "splinter" episode of the "Smashing Security" podcast from September 2017 we tackle the tricky subject of backups - When did you last backup your data? How and what should you backup? And where should you store them?

Lots of questions and Graham gets to do his Tina Turner impression.

121: Hijacked motel rooms, ASUS PCs, and leaky apps

March 28th, 2019  |  47 mins 37 secs

asus, data breach, hotel, malware, motel, privacy, shadowhammer, supply chain

An app leaking private conversations and intimate photographs is ignoring requests to fix the problem, hackers poison a security update sent to ASUS PCs, and how to protect your privacy in motel rooms.

117: SWATs on a plane

February 28th, 2019  |  57 mins 24 secs

facebook, insurance, linkedin, malware, perfect night in, rude words, swatting, tetris, twitter

Why is Tampa's mayor tweeting about blowing up the airport? Are hackers trying to connect with you via LinkedIn? And has Maria succeeded in her attempt to survive February without Facebook?

Plus, after last week's discussion about the legal battle between Mondelez and Zurich Insurance, we have a chat with security veteran Martin Overton to take a deeper look into cyberinsurance.

110: What? You can get paid to leave Facebook?

January 10th, 2019  |  51 mins 8 secs

bear brook, bug bounty, exploit, facebook, hacking, louis theroux, marie kondo, twitter, vulnerability, zerodium

Twitter and the not-so-ethical hacking of celebrity accounts, study discovers how you can pay someone to quit Facebook for a year, and the millions of dollars you can make from uncovering software vulnerabilities.

106: Google Maps, Fed phishing, and Grinch bots

November 29th, 2018  |  1 hr 50 secs

business email compromise, fbi, fedex, google maps, grinch bot, passwords, phishing, scam

How are scammers stealing your money through Google Maps? Why did the FBI create a fake FedEx website? And how are US senators hoping to stop Grinch bots ruining Christmas?

101: Rule 34, Twitter scams, and Facebook fails

October 25th, 2018  |  50 mins 32 secs

bitcoin, cia, data breach, elon musk, facebook, privacy, scam, the good place, twitter

A Facebook friend request leads to arrest, Twitter scams ride again via promoted ads, and adult websites expose their members. Oh, and Graham finds out what Rule 34 is.

098: A Facebook omnishambles

October 4th, 2018  |  51 mins 28 secs

2fa, conference, conservative, facebook, hack, star trek, the one show, vulnerability

Millions of Facebook user accounts put at risk after hack! The UK Conservative party's conference app causes a privacy omnishambles! And Facebook (again) has been doing something naughty with the phone numbers you give it for security reasons! Oh, and Maria gets very excited about something to do with Star Trek.

091: Sextortion, Las Vegas hotels, and Alex Jones

August 16th, 2018  |  48 mins 14 secs

alex jones, chess, def con, infowars, las vegas, octopath traveler, privacy, sextortion, twitter

Just how did sextortionists get (some) of the digits in your phone number? Why are some hackers saying they won't be going to DEF CON in Las Vegas anymore? And should Alex Jones from InfoWars be banned from Twitter?