Katrina tops list of malware-prone celebrity names: Report
November 23rd, 2011 - 6:08 pm ICT by IANS
Mumbai, Nov 23 (IANS) Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif’s name has emerged on top among the most dangerous celebrity-related key words in the Indian cyber space that expose computers to malicious software, according to a report for internet security company McAfee.
The company researched through popular cultures and famous people including sportsmen, actors and politicians across the web to reveal the ‘Most Dangerous Indian Celebrity’.
Actresses Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor took the next two spots after Katrina.
Commenting on the findings of the report, the senior director of McAfee India, Venkatasubrahmanyam Krishnapur said that in a celebrity crazy country such as India, cyber criminals find it very lucrative to use the names of popular figures as keywords to lure people to websites with malicious software.
“This year’s study found movie stars top the most dangerous list, while sports stars and politicians are among the safest,” he said.
Fans looking for results on search engines using strings such as “name of celebrity” combined with words like “free downloads”, “hot pictures”, “screen savers” and “videos” are at risk of running themselves into websites with malicious software and online threats designed to steal personal information.
“Searching for top celebrities continues to generate risky results,” said Paula Greve, director of web security research at McAfee.
“Consumers should be particularly aware of malicious content hiding in tiny places like shortened URLs (uniform resource locators) that can spread virally in social networking sites, or through e-mails and text messages from friends,” she added
The study for “Most Dangerous Celebrity” used the McAfee SiteAdvisor site ratings which indicated the sites that were risky to search for celebrity names on the web and calculated an overall risk percentage.
The other Indian celebrities who followed the three leading ladies were actors Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Amir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and actresses Priyanka Chopra, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Bipasha Basu.
- Jessica Biel adjudged "Most Dangerous" - Aug 26, 2009
- Klum the most dangerous star on web! - Sep 18, 2011
- Cameron Diaz tops 'Most Dangerous Celebrity Search Names' poll - Aug 19, 2010
- Cameron Diaz Becomes The Most Dangerous Celebrity To Search For Online - Aug 23, 2010
- Top four cyber threats for 2011 revealed - Jan 08, 2011
- Jordan named "Most Dangerous Cyberspace Celebrity " in UK - Aug 25, 2009
- Jessica Biel named 'Most Dangerous Cyberspace Celebrity' in US - Aug 25, 2009
- Indian parents wary of kids getting hooked online: Survey - Jun 22, 2011
- Half of Oz teens share personal data with strangers online - Nov 23, 2010
- Hackers could make your car unsafe, McAfee warns - Sep 09, 2011
- 10 most dangerous web search terms revealed - Jun 03, 2009
- Intel to buy McAfee in $7.7-bn deal - Aug 19, 2010
- McAfee Voices That The Threat From Malware Is Extremely High - Aug 11, 2010
- Chinese hackers steal "confidential information" of five global oil companies: McAfee - Feb 11, 2011
- Cyber criminals target Japan disaster donators - Mar 20, 2011
Tags: celebrity names, cyber criminals, cyber space, deepika padukone, indian celebrities, indian celebrity, internet security company, john abraham, kareena kapoor, katrina kaif, malicious software, mcafee siteadvisor site, saif ali khan, search engines, security research, social networking sites, sports stars, tiny places, top celebrities, uniform resource locators