Cameron Diaz named the most dangerous cyber space celebrity

Knight and Day star Cameron Diaz has been named as the most dangerous celebrity in cyber space.

McAfee's fourth annual most dangerous celebrities report found that the actress results in a one -in-ten chance of landing on a risky site, with actresses Julia Roberts second and Jessica Biel third.

With cyber criminals often using the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software, anyone looking for the latest videos or pictures could end up with a malware-ridden computer instead of just trendy content.

Research found that anyone searching for ‘Cameron Diaz' along with ‘downloads', ‘screen savers', ‘wallpaper', ‘photos' and ‘videos' are at risk of running into online threats. The rest of the top ten is made up of actors such as Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Anna Paquin, and models such as Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima and Heidi Klum.

Teen star Justin Bieber was ranked towards the bottom of the list at 46, while politicians such as Barack Obama (49) and Sarah Palin (50) are among the safest.

Dave Marcus, security researcher for McAfee Labs, said: “This year, the search results for celebrities are safer than they've been in previous years, but there are still dangers when searching online. Through consumer education and tools, consumers are getting smarter about searching online, yet cyber criminals are getting sneakier in their techniques.

“Now they're 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.

“Cyber criminals follow the same hot topics as consumers, and create traps based on the latest trends. Whether you're surfing the web from your computer or your phone or clicking on links in Twitter about your favourite celeb, you should surf safely and make sure you're using the latest security software.” 

See original article on scmagazineus.com