Prominent celebrities have millions of fans around the globe who scour the web to know about them. This is precisely the sentiment which malware authors actively cash on. They load celebrity-related sites with malware so that when fans come searching for them, their machines are infected. A recent McAfee report revealed how vulnerable the fans are. According to the security firm, fans of Hollywood actress Emma Watson are the top on the list of cyber ‘insecurity’. After evaluating the risks, McAfee even crowned “Emma Watson” as the most dangerous search term on the internet.
According to the security company, if you are searching for Emma Watson on the web, there is a very high likelihood that you will end up on a site which is heavily infected with malware. In fact, one in eight sites which appear as search results for “Emma Watson” are infected.
Interestingly, if you try to search up nude pictures of Emma Watson, the search results present an even greater security risks. This is simply a way for the hackers and malware authors to manipulate human psychology and to use it to infect the machines of celebrity fans.
According to the director of web security research at McAfee, Paula Greve, “In today’s celebrity culture, consumers expect to be able to go online to catch up with the latest photos, videos, tweets, and stories about their favourite celebrities. Due to the richness of the data and the high interaction, often consumers forget the risks that they are taking by clicking on the links.”
Other prominent celebrities that turn up as ‘dangerous’ for online search include Selena Gomez, Eva Mendes, Megan Fox, Halle Berry, Shakira and Cameron Diaz.
Courtesy: Huffington Post
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