Jessica Biel: The web's most dangerous celeb

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August 25th, 2009 - Posted by Kent

Internet security software provider McAfee has identified Jessica Biel as "the most dangerous celebrity to search in cyberspace." Biel takes this dubious honor from last year's winner, Brad Pitt. What makes a celebrity "dangerous to search"?

Every year McAfee ranks the celebrity searches most likely to lead users to sites that contain "spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware." According to McAfee, looking for the goods on your favorite celebs can be hazardous to your computer's health and security. A search for Biel has a one-in-five chance of pulling up a malicious site. Who else made the list? Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale, Lindsay Lohan, Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie, Tom Brady, and Gisele Bundchen. The Obamas, it turns out, are much safer. Of course we can't blame the celebrities; cyber criminals follow popularity just like we do, only for different reasons.

This doesn't mean celeb watchers have to give up their past time, but it does mean they should be smart about their surfing. Users should be particularly careful of downloads. Download wallpapers only from trusted sites (such as the celebrity's own site), and be extremely wary of video. We know from recent virus tests we've conducted in our lab that cyber criminals are capitalizing on video by building trojans into supposed flash plugins, or phishing from sites that clone YouTube.

Finally, make sure you have Internet security software installed and that it's up-to-date. Check out our reviews and comparisons of Internet security software to see how different options stack up.