Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts and Jessica Biel are the “most dangerous” celebrities to search for on the internet, a new survey about online dangers found.Researchers found Hollywood actresses and beautiful models were who online criminals most likely used to lure unsuspecting web users to bogus sites.
They found more than six million unique, newly created pieces of malicious programming were created over the past year, the equivalent to around 60,000 pieces every day.
Experts say hackers and fraudsters often use such websites “booby-trapped” with malicious software and which target the private details of innocent users.
Clicking on strange sites is often fraught with danger but thousands continue to ignore the risks, often to their peril, which leads to computers becoming infected with viruses.
Once a computer is infected, criminals can steal victims' online banking passwords, email passwords, and undertake other “nasty deeds”.
According to the survey of the "most dangerous celebrities", Diaz was top ranked celebrity, just a step ahead of box office powerhouse Julia Roberts and other leading Lady Jessica Biel.
More than one in 10 internet searches about Diaz, 37, led to “risky websites”, which trick visitors into unwittingly downloading viruses that can seize control or computers or mine them for data.
While an fifth of websites that came from searching the term "Cameron Diaz screensavers" were rigged with malicious code.
Searches related to Roberts, 42, who has been promoting her new film "Eat, Pray, Love," resulted in tainted websites nine per cent of the time, but the risk leapt to 20 per cent when pictures or wallpaper were downloaded.
Biel, 28, who topped last year’s list, was the third most dangerous with her overall risk matching Roberts’ but users had a slightly less chance of being offered booby-trapped screensavers.
Victoria's Secret lingerie models Gisele Buendchen, Adriana Lima, and Heidi Klum were among the Top Ten while tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Andy Roddick were 13th and 14th respectively.
The other most-dangerous celebrities to look for online include Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Heidi Klum, Penelope Cruz and Anna Paquin, the star of TV hit "True Blood”.
US President Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, the failed vice presidential candidate, ranked last on the list, released by an internet security firm, making them less threatening topics for internet searches.
“Cybercriminals often use the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software," said Dave Marcus, from McAfee, which commissioned the study.
"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.
He added: "They know that people want to have screensavers of popular individuals. They follow hot topics on the web and create their poisonous content accordingly and (lay) traps based on the latest trends."
McAfee performed its tests in July using the company's technology for identifying dangerous websites.
The rankings measured the likelihood that someone looking for things, such as photos and videos of those celebrities, would land on a malicious site.
By Andrew
source:telegraph.co.uk
