Saturday, September 17, 2011

Heidi Klum Tops the 2011 List of Most Dangerous Celebrities to Search Online

Beware of malware, spyware and viruses when searching for celebrities online.Oh, cybercriminals, why must you take advantage of society’s need to follow the lives of the rich and famous?

Internet scam artists frequently use the names of famous figures, whether they’re actors (or  actresses), models, musicians, athletes or even politicians, to attract people to their sites only to infect their PCs with malware, spyware, or nasty little computer viruses.

According to the McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities study, which focuses on finding out which celebrity names are most likely to pose the biggest threat, those of us who find the need to search Heidi Klum on the web have a 1-in-10 chance of clicking a link that will lead to a malicious website.

Heidi Klum, the producer/host of “Project Runway” and former Victoria’s Secret Model,  has beat out last year’s winner, Cameron Diaz, to earn the title of the #1 Dangerous Celebrity to search online. Cameron Diaz now sits in second place, with Piers Morgan (host of the “Piers Morgan Tonight”) coming in 3rd.

Looking at some of the keywords the McAfee study claims has the highest threat (“Heidi Klum and downloads” or “Heidi Klum and ‘free’ downloads”), it’s not really all that much of a surprise that some of them may pose as a threat versus providing a fan with their Heidi Klum fix.  Either way, McAfee’s research team states that searching for the latest pictures and downloads for Heidi comes with a 1-in-9 chance that you’ll get spyware, adware, spam, malware, computer virus or other little nasty PC bugs instead.

The top 10 celebrities that pose the highest search risk for fans are:

  1. Heidi Klum

  2. Cameron Diaz

  3. Piers Morgan

  4. Jessica Biel

  5. Katherine Heigl

  6. Mila Kunis

  7. Anna Paquin

  8. Adriana Lima

  9. Scarlett Johansson

  10. Emma Stone, Brad Pitt, Rachel McAdams


Some celebrities that were previously in the top 10 but have fallen out of rank include Gisele Bündchen, Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts.

Folks who prefer to follow the lives (and photos) of athletes and singers will be pleased to know that McAfee’s study finds that sports stars and musicians are safer to search than their acting and modeling counterparts. (Of course you should still proceed with caution when downloading files – that’s always a given!)

If you’re one to often take to the search engines in hopes of getting the latest gossip, video, or photos of your favorite celebrity then it’s always a good idea to run up-to-date anti-virus software and a personal firewall. All downloaded files should be scanned by your anti-virus regardless of the file extension.

To see the full McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities report, wander over here.

Have you encountered any suspicious files when searching for your favorite celebrity? Share your experience below!

Photo Credit: photographerglen

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