If you’re looking for Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts or Jessica Biel online, look out! The movie stars top the latest list of the most dangerous celebrities to search for online, according to new research by computer-security software maker McAfee Inc.
It’s far from an Oscar, but landing atop McAfee’s annual list carries a distinction all its own: It means that criminals believe those celebs are the perfect lures to sucker people into visiting malicious Web sites.
Clicking onto strange sites is sketchy to begin with. But many people do, and their computers get infected. Once a computer is infected, criminals can steal victims’ online banking passwords, e-mail passwords, and do other kinds of nasty deeds.
Here’s this year’s list:
1. Cameron Diaz — Searching for Diaz results in a one in 10 chance of landing on a risky site. She has most recently been in the spotlight with blockbuster movies, “Knight and Day” and “Shrek Forever After.” When “Cameron Diaz and screensavers” was searched, 19 percent of the sites were identified as containing malicious downloads.
2. Julia Roberts — Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts is one of America’s sweethearts, and will soon be in the spotlight with her upcoming release of “Eat, Pray, Love.” The overall risk of searching for Roberts is 9 percent, yet searching for “Julia Roberts and downloads” results in a 20 percent chance of downloading a photo, wallpaper or other file laden with malware.
3. Jessica Biel — Last year’s Most Dangerous Celebrity fell two spots with searches resulting in fewer risky sites this year. Biel continues to be in the spotlight with her on-again, off-again relationship with Justin Timberlake, and appeared in “The A-Team” in June 2010. While her overall search risk is 9 percent, searching for “Jessica Biel and screensavers” results in a 17 percent chance of landing on a risky site.
4. Gisele Bundchen — The world’s highest-paid supermodel moved up two spots since last year. Searching for “Gisele Bundchen and screensavers” can prove risky, 15 percent of the search results for this beauty can put spyware, malware or viruses on your computer.
5. Brad Pitt — Pitt is often in the spotlight with news of his movies and his personal life. It’s no wonder why this leading man has been in the top 10 for the past three years. He moved up in rank five spots this year. Downloading photos, screensavers, or other files of Brad can potentially put adware or spyware in your computer.
6. Adriana Lima — Searching for downloads of this Brazilian beauty can direct users to red-ranked sites. Lima is best known for being a Victoria’s Secret Angel since 2000.
7. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Nicole Kidman — Searching for these Hollywood starlets resulted in an equal number of risky download Web sites.
8. Tom Cruise — With recent buzz around his MTV Awards performance as well as his movie, “Knight and Day,” Cruise rises to the top 10.
9. Heidi Klum, Penelope Cruz — Both of these ladies are consistently in the spotlight, and share the No. 9 spot. Cybercriminals use their names to lure people to risky sites. Klum hosts “Project Runway” and Cruz has been in the spotlight recently for her role in the “Sex and the City 2″ movie and is expected to be in the fourth film of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.
10. Anna Paquin — This “True Blood” star is as dangerous on the Web as she is on the screen. Searching for screensavers of Paquin can lead you to downloads filled with malware.
