Thinking of hitting up Google to get the latest buzz on your favorite celebrity? You may want to check whether or not your favorite star is on McAfee’s 2012 list of the Most Dangerous Celebrities to search for on the web first.As we all know, cybercriminals love to create malicious websites designed to spread malware or steal personal information through a crafty phishing trap – and they often use juicy celebrity content to lure us to said sites.
In 2011, McAfee said that a web search for Heidi Klum had a 1-in-9 chance of taking you to a website that would attempt to plant spyware, adware or some other type of malware on your PC. Searches involving Cameron Diaz, Piers Morgan, Jessica Biel and Katherine Heigl were also said to pose a danger to the health of user’s PCs.
This year’s most dangerous celebrity to search for online is said to be none other than Harry Potter’s Emma Watson. In fact, McAfee found that those who searched for the latest Watson pictures and downloads have a 1-in-8 chance of hitting a malicious website.
Here's the list of top 10 most dangerous celebrities to search for online:
- Emma Watson
- Jessica Biel
- Eva Mendes
- Selena Gomez
- Halle Berry
- Megan Fox
- Shakira
- Cameron Diaz
- Salma Hayek
- Sofia Vergara
Keeping Your PC Safe When Conducting Celebrity Searches Online
In the event that you just cannot resist searching for gossip on your favorite celebrity, McAfee has a few words of advice on staying safe:
- Use common sense: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Always double-check the web address (URL) that you are going to. For example, if you are searching for Amazon.com and get a result for “Amazzon.cn”, you should know not to click.
- Beware of content that prompts you to download anything before providing you with content. You may want to opt to watch streaming videos or download content from an established site, such as Hulu, Netflix, NBC, or ABCtv.
- Free downloads are significantly the highest virus-prone search terms. Anyone searching for videos or files to download should be careful as not to unleash malware on their computer.
- Since most people use a variety of devices to search for celebrities, be sure you have up to date, comprehensive security for all of your devices.
- Keep your operating system and third-party software patched and up-to-date at all times to help minimize the success of drive-by-download attacks.
[via McAfee]
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