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 31 episodes.
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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.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.