Emma Watson is at the top of the list “Most Dangerous Celeb to Search For.”
If you’re reading this and you don’t know who Emma Watson is yet, you might want to finish reading this article before you perform a Google search for her. The young actress starred in the Harry Potter films over the last decade and has eventually become more and more popular.
In fact, she may have become too popular. A recent study from McAffee, a security company, revealed that the young Ms. Watson has surpassed supermodel Heidi Klum to become the most dangerous celebrity to search for online. McAffee, which monitors security threats online, said that links related to Emma Watson are more likely than any other celebrity’s to contain malware and viruses. Jessica Biel and Eva Mendes ranked second and third, respectively.
“Cybercriminals follow the latest trends, often using the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software that are designed to steal passwords and personal information,” McAfee said in their study. “This year, searching for a celebrity name with ‘free downloads’ and ‘nude pictures’ as part of the search term resulted in the highest result of risky sites.”
McAffee’s study discovered that users have a 12.6% chance of accessing malicious site when searching for pictures of Emma Watson or downloads related to her.
The rest of the top 10 is mostly populated with Latina women, such as Selena Gomez and Shakira.
Female celebrities were exponentially more likely to contain threats in their search results. Jimmy Kimmel is the only man in the top 20. Chances are likely that this is because more men search for lascivious downloads of female celebrities, whereas women are more likely to have their computers infected by other sites, such as those linked to on social networks like Facebook.
About The Author: Andrea Eldridge is CEO and co-founder of Nerds On Call, a computer repair company that specializes in on-site and online service for homes and businesses. Andrea is the writer of a weekly column, Nerd Chick Adventures in The Record Searchlight. She prepares TV segments for and appears regularly on CBS, CW and FOX on shows such as Good Day Sacramento, More Good Day Portland, and CBS 13 News, offering viewers technology and lifestyle tips. See Andrea in action at callnerds.com/andrea/.
