Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz has replaced Jessica Biel as the most risky celebrity to search for online, researchers at security specialist McAfee have found.
Actors and models were among the worst on this year’s McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities list, while politicians such as Barack Obama were among the safest to search for.
Malware writers often use famous names to lure people to websites laden with spyware, adware, spam, phishing scams and viruses.
“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. “Now [cybercriminals are] 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.”
The study found that searching for pictures and downloads of Cameron Diaz presents a one in ten chance of finding a malware-infected site.
The top ten ‘most dangerous’ celebrities this year are:
1. Cameron Diaz
2. Julia Roberts
3. Jessica Biel
4. Gisele Bundchen
5. Brad Pitt
6. Adriana Lima
=7. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Nicole Kidman
9. Tom Cruise
=10. Heidi Klum and Penelope Cruz
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