Cameron Diaz, Riskiest Celebrity To Search For: Mcafee

McAfee the security software developer during a new research found that the name of celebrity Cameron Diaz was most risky to search for online.

Specifically, the most new form of "Dangerous Celebrities" research that McAfee conducted disclosed that hackers utilized names of famous celebrities to lure Web-surfers onto their websites that actually carried malware. If users searched online for the recent rumor or a sensational photograph of Diaz, they were in all probability diverted onto websites that contained malicious content.

Indeed, according to estimated figures, over 1 in ten online searches regarding Diaz took surfers onto 'dangerous websites.' These websites dupe visitors into unknowingly pull down viruses, which are capable of controlling PCs alternatively harvesting them for sensitive information. Thus, if a PC becomes contaminated, criminals can seize the user's e-mail password, Internet banking details, or even compromise his friends' computers.

Furthermore, as per the study, searching for 'Cameron Diaz' or a screensaver, returns hits which have 19% possibilities of producing a website that's known to contain malware. Thus taking down screensavers or images of Diaz was identified as most hazardous.

Remarking about this, security researcher Dave Marcus for McAfee Labs stated that online crooks were becoming smarter with each passing day. They were wary of people who desired possessing screensavers depicting famous personalities. Thus they kept up with the latest sensational topics online and used them while designing malware and concealing it inside shortened URLs, which could proliferate via Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking websites, Marcus noted. IC Tech News published this on August 20, 2010.

Meanwhile, following Diaz, the second most risky name to search for was Julia Roberts. Other names identified as dangerous searchers were Brad Pitt, Gisele Bundchen, Jessica Biel, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Adriana Lima, Anna Paquin, Penelope Cruz, Tom Cruise and Heidi Klum. But, celebrities who were most secure to hunt online included Barack Obama and Sarah Palin who were on the 49th and 50th positions, respectively.

Eventually according McAfee's researchers, the search returns obtained via hunting for famous personalities are safer in 2010 compared to those obtained during earlier years; nevertheless, risky results still prevail.

» SPAMfighter News - 8/26/2010