The most dangerous search terms…

Posted by Caitlin on June 11th, 2009

McAfee recently conducted a study to identify the most dangerous Internet search terms. Searches for these words are most likely to lead Internet users to pages containing malware. The study tested thousands of keywords using Google, Yahoo, AOL and Ask, and analyzed hundreds of thousands of web pages.

Searches for screensavers, free games, work from home opportunities, the Olympics, videos, celebrities, music and news were found to be the riskiest, in terms of exposure to viruses and hackers. As  far as specific terms, "word unscrambler," "lyrics," "myspace," "free music downloads," "phelps," "game cheats," "printable fill-in puzzles," "free ringtones" and "solitaire" were the most dangerous.

Google and other search engines seem trustworthy, but they can't weed out all the potentially dangerous web sites. For that, you need Internet security software. To learn more about McAfee and other anti-virus programs, see our reviews and comparison chart.