She seems so sweet and loveable on Project Runway, but Heidi Klum is now the “most dangerous celebrity” to search for on the Web, according to the 2011 version of McAfee’s annual list.
The internet security company said that searching for things like Heidi Klum downloads and screensavers “yields more than a 9 percent chance of landing on a website that has tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.”
“While slightly safer than last year, searching for top celebrities continues to generate risky results,” said Paula Greve, director of Web security research at McAfee. The company also said that searches for singers and sports stars tend to be safer searches than movie stars and models.
The cyber criminals, who particularly like to hide “malicious content… in ‘tiny’ places like shortened URLs that can spread virally in social networking sites,” often use the name of popular celebrities to lure people in.
But ‘popular’ appears to be a fickle word, given that making the news doesn’t seem to be too much of a factor considering Charlie Sheen only ranked 59 and Lindsay Lohan at 18 despite all of their forays with the media this year.
Here’s the Top 10:
1. Heidi Klum
2. Cameron Diaz, down one spot from her #1 ranking last year
3. Piers Morgan, “the most dangerous male celebrity” to search for
4. Jessica Biel, 2009’s most dangerous celebrity
5. Katherine Heigl
6. Mila Kunis
7. Anna Paquin
8. Adriana Lima
9. Scarlett Johansson
10. Emma Stone, Brad Pitt and Rachel McAdams
Some of the celebrities on this top list may surprise you, they surprised us, but it just goes to show: be careful who you search for!