search your preferent ( or not ) celebrity ’s name online might not seem moderately harmful , but certain name might be put you more at risk of cybercriminals than others .
That ’s concord to web security firm McAfee , who have just published their 11th annualMost grievous Celebritiesstudy . This reveals those celebrities with the most grave hunt results , view as as being the ones most likely to lead you to malware and other harmful things .
former “ winner ” of the accolade have let in Emma Watson and Amy Schumer . This year , however , Canadian soda water sensation Avril Lavigne top the list . Congratulations !
“ We surf the internet to find oneself the latest celebrity small talk , hear a Modern song , and even interact with our favorite stars . And cybercriminals roll in the hay that , ” McAfee said in ablog post . “ In fact , they ’re capitalizing on that by weaving in sneaky cyberthreats within celebrity sites . ”
Lavigne is espouse in the tilt by Bruno Mars , Carly Rae Jepsen , Zayn Malik , and Celine Dion . round out the top ten are Calvin Harris , Justin Bieber , Diddy , Katy Perry , and Beyoncé . In the UK , Craig Davidwas named the most dangerous fame to research for .
So how did Lavigne make her way to the top of the list ? Well , the first intellect appear to be because there ’s abizarre conspiracy theoryabout her , namely that the real Isaac M. Singer died in 2003 and she ’s been replaced by an pretender called Melissa . This can moderate to unreliable sources and compromise land site .
“ The 2d reason is that in late 2016 Lavigne announced that she was act upon on a new album that will be released before the end of 2017 , ” said McAfee . “ And regrettably , content searches for raw music [ things like “ Avril Lavigne + loose mp3 ” ] lead many into uncertain expanse of the internet . ”
Using this downloadable content to their vantage , hackers can entice hoi polloi onto malicious websites and install malware on their equipment to slip personal selective information .
So is there any hope for us simple media muggles ? Why yes , yes there is . McAfee says , for a start , you should be thrifty what you clack on . Second , searching for “ free MP3 ” credibly is n’t a fast - track to Internet security system . And third , use antivirus software .
