McAfee SiteAdvisor report reveals Malware celebrities
by Steven Mostyn - Aug 23 2010, 08:42
Getting your screensavers from here wouldn't be a good idea. Image: McAfee/Google.
So you’re an avid online fan of all things ‘celebrity’ and also tend to find you’re often the unwitting victim of Malware attacks. Have you ever thought there may be a link between the two?
According to online security specialist McAfee and its latest report on ‘The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms’, high-profile searches for the likes of Jessica Biel, Gisele Buendchen, and Julia Roberts can often lead to URLs hiding potentially dangerous instances of Malware, adware and spyware.
In terms of the most potentially dangerous celebrity names, Hollywood starlet Cameron Diaz takes top overall spot, pushing fellow actress Jessica Biel – last year’s leading bait name – down into third. Evergreen Julia Roberts splits them in second, while the top five places are rounded out by supermodel Gisele Buendchen in fourth and Brad Pitt in fifth.
Given the immense popularity of the Twilight series, it’s perhaps interesting to note that neither of its leading stars – Robert Pattinson or Kristen Steward – make McAfee’s top listing. McAfee attributes Diaz’s positioning to her appearing in both Knight and Day and Shrek: Forever After during the time the SiteAdvisor ‘risk list’ was being compiled.
Searching for Cameron Diaz will create a 10 percent chance of landing on a site infected with or attempting to increase the spread of Malware, while specifically searching for Cameron Diaz screensavers increases the risk to 20 percent, outlined Dave Marcus, director of security research and communication at McAfee.
Although urging caution when it comes to the possibility of being socially engineered by attackers, Marcus also pointed out that this year’s report (McAfee’s fourth annual edition) does show improved user awareness.
“Consumers are getting smarter about searching online, yet cyber criminals are getting sneakier in their techniques,” he outlined. “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.”
In order to help avoid Malware attacks connected to online searches, McAfee suggests you seek out SiteAdvisor immediately. The simple plug-in tool is completely free to use and assesses the known threat levels of individual sites by placing green ticks, yellow caution exclamations or red warning crosses beside them on search results.
Other big-name risks associated with McAfee’s fourth annual list include the likes of tennis player Andy Roddick (14), pop sensation Lady Gaga (37), teenage phenomenon Justin Bieber (46) and U.S. President Barack Obama (49).
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