Searching online for Cameron could lead to Diaz-aster

Post by Steven Cox on 20th August 2010
 in General news, Search

Cameron Diaz has replaced Jessica Biel as the most dangerous celebrity to type into a search engine, according to security company McAfee. 

For the fourth year in a row, McAfee researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest celebrity athletes, musicians, politicians, comedians and Hollywood stars on the Web.

The McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities study found movie stars and models top the "most dangerous" list this year while politicians like Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are among the safest.

Cybercriminals often use the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software. Anyone looking for the latest videos or pictures could end up with a malware-ridden computer instead of just trendy content.

“This year, the search results for celebrities are safer than they’ve been in previous years, but there are still dangers when searching online,” said Dave Marcus, security researcher for McAfee Labs. “Through consumer education and tools, such as McAfee® SiteAdvisor® site ratings, consumers are getting smarter about searching online, yet cybercriminals are getting sneakier in their techniques. Now they’re hiding malicious content in ‘tiny’ places like shortened URLs that can spread virally in social networking sites and Twitter, instead of on websites and downloads.”

McAfee research found that searching for the latest Cameron Diaz pictures and downloads yields a ten percent chance of landing on a website that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

The study uses SiteAdvisor site ratings, which indicates which sites are risky to search for celebrity names on the Web and calculate an overall risk percentage.

Diaz, 37, is top of the list of the most dangerous celebrities to search for online, above second-placed Julia Roberts, according to computer security company McAfee, Inc. Last year's most dangerous web celebrity, Jessica Biel, fell to third.

Other names on the list include Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, and a welter of supermodels including Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum.

“Cybercriminals follow the same hot topics as consumers, and create traps based on the latest trends,” continued Marcus.