McAfee named its most dangerous cyber celebrity

McAfee has released a list of the world’s most dangerous cyber celebrities as part of a research study on the “Most Dangerous Celebrities” that revealed popular culture’s most riskiest stars to search for.

Topping the charts this year is Emma Watson, who has replaced Heidi Klum as the most dangerous celebrity to search for online. Jessica Biel takes the number two spot and Eva Mendes comes in third.

McAfee has been researching the risks behind Hollywood stars, athletes, musicians, politicians, designers and comedians for an amazing six years.

The Most Dangerous Celebrities study found that female celebrities are more dangerous than their male counterparts no male stars cracking the Top 10.

Behind Watson, Biel and Mendez the rest of the top 10 looked like this:

4. Selena Gomez

5. Halle Berry

6. Megan Fox

7. Shakira

8. Salma Hayek

9. Cameron Diaz

10. Sofia Vergara.

According to the McAfee study, Internet Searches for Watson yield nearly a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site. If you search for the latest photos of Watson and downloads yields more than a 12.6 per cent chance of landing on a Web site that has tested positive for online threats such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

Risky search terms include “Emma Watson and free downloads,” “Emma Watson and nude pictures,” “Emma Watson and fakes,” and “Emma Watson and busted.”

This year’s study revealed that its more dangerous to search for a female celebrity than a male one.

Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is the only male to make the top 20 list this year.

Brenda Moretto, Canadian Consumer sales manager at McAfee, said throughout the six years McAfee has been conducting this study, the company has seen a myriad of searches for top celebrities generating risky results, and it’s often difficult for users to recognize them. As users steadily increase the amount of time they spend on their Internet-connected devices, we are seeing a parallel growth in the number of malware threats being released to the public. The time is now for users to practice safe surfing and browsing habits.

She added that cybercriminals follow the latest trends, often using the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software designed to steal passwords and personal information.Anyone looking for the latest videos or files to download could end up with a malware-ridden computer. This year, McAfee’s study showed that searching for a celebrity name with “free downloads” and “nude pictures” as part of the search term resulted in the highest result of risky sites.

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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