The most-dangerous celebs on the Web, What's the matter with Jessica Biel? McAfee, the anti-virus software maker, is out with its third annual list of the most dangerous names to search on the web, and reports that if you Google "Jessica Biel screensavers" (or Yahoo or Bing it), almost half the downloads you could click on will try to deposit malware (viruses, pop-up ads, spyware, etc.) in your computer. most dangerous celebrities web, Here is McAfee's list of the "Riskiest Celebrities to Search on the Web":
1. Jessica Biel
2. Beyonce
3. Jennifer Aniston
4. Tom Brady
5. Jessica Simpson
6. Gisele Bundchen
7. Miley Cyrus
8. Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie (tie)
9. Ashley Tisdale
10. Brad Pitt (he was first last year)
11. Reese Witherspoon
12. Britney Spears
13. Rihanna
14. Lindsay Lohan
15. Kim Kardashian
"Cybercriminals are star watchers too -- they latch onto popular celebrities to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise," said Jeff Green, a McAfee senior vice president, in a press statement. "Consumers' obsession with celebrity news and culture is harmless in theory, but one bad download can cause a lot of damage to a computer."
McAfee says it compiled the rankings using software it makes called SiteAdvisor. There is a version you can download for free, which warns how risky a site is before you click on it.
This comes with the standard disclaimer that McAfee is in the business of selling software to protect your machine from such crises. Their virus-scan programs start at $29.99. They add that Windows computers are not the only vulnerable ones; users of Apple, Linux and others get hit too.
There are many competitors, of course, and some of the best don't charge anything for their most basic versions. Norton, AVG, Kaspersky and F-Secure are among the most popular.
In June, McAfee went through the top 2,600 search terms from Google, Yahoo and elsewhere, and came out with an overall list of riskiest searches -- celebrities need not apply. It was a very different list:
1. Word Unscrambler
2. Lyrics
3. MySpace
4. Free Music Downloads
5. Phelps, Weber-Gale, Jones and Lezak Wins 4x 100m Relay
6. Free Music
7. Game Cheats
8. Printable Fill in Puzzles
9. Free Ringtones
10. Solitaire
The Most Dangerous Names on the Web
One thing that unifies these terms is that many of them lead you to downloadable files. Looking at any Web site means your computer will download something (the picture of Ms. Biel with this story, for instance), but larger files mean more room for malware.
Computer security people say the actual search is not what's risky; that plain-vanilla list of links you see if you Google something is pretty harmless. Clicking through to an actual site is where you court trouble.
What names are safe to search? Obviously, you do better if you're not looking for people in the headlines. But McAfee claims Barack Obama was only 34th on its new list, and Michele Obama was 39th.
Source: abcnews
.
.
Popular Posts
-
Search: 89-year-old waterboarded by caregivers, Police: Two Clayton women waterboarded elderly patient, Police in Clayton County have accus...
-
Chocolate As Good As Exercise Chocolate As Good As Exercise. Chocolate as Good as Exercise: Study. Moderate amounts of dark chocolate...
-
Petra Anderson Recovery - A positive story out of Aurora demonstrates how concerned Americans can make a difference in the wake of Friday’s ...
-
Female Celebrities Like Lollipops The candy has a very good effect of decompression and relaxation, usually a lot of pressure in the stars...
-
Osama bin Laden life and family in pictures Osama bin Laden, second right and inset, on a visit to Falun, Sweden in 1971. Pictured with se...
-
Celebrities who stayed with cheating husbands, Women who stayed with cheating men, With rumors of infidelity almost constantly flying abou...
-
The Big Crossover The Big Crossover. Actors who sing. It's a familiar showbiz trope that most actors really want to direct, but ent...
-
Jennifer Aniston Justin Theroux Romantic Trip. The loving touch: Jennifer Aniston places her hands on Justin Theroux as the couple enjoy ...
-
Celebs Who Love Horses Almost every little kid dreams of someday owning a pony, but this childhood fantasy doesn't always come to frui...
-
Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis Dating. Mila Kunis looked lovely as she arrived at Nobu last night. She and co-star Justin Timberlake w...