Cricketer Yuvraj Singh and actor Aishwarya Rai are listed as the most “dangerous” Indian celebrities in cyberspace.
Fans entering the names of celebrities in search engines to find free wall papers, screen savers or videos now have a ‘one-in-five chance’ of landing at websites that could export online threats like spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware to the computer used for searching, according to research findings published by McAfee, an Internet security firm.
McAfee said Yuvraj Singh and Aishwarya Rai have overtaken Katrina Kaif, who was found to be the ‘most dangerous Indian web celebrity’ in earlier research. Browsers generally use key words for downloads of wallpapers, photos, and screensavers.
McAfee ranked the top ten celebrities whose name searches could lead to potentially dangerous websites. It said a web search for MS Dhoni led to some websites containing spyware which could make changes to a PC’s browser settings.
Namitha, the South Indian actress was the fourth ranked and a search with her name could land the browser on websites containing browser exploits. Following are the other search keywords linked to problems: Shriya Saran (actor), Harbhajan Singh (cricketer), Sania Mirza (tennis player), Asin, Bipasha Basu and Shahid Kapoor (actors).
“Cricket and Bollywood are two subjects about which every Indian is passionate. It is no surprise that cybercriminals capitalize on celebrities from the world of sports and cinema to lure innocent fans to encourage the download of malicious software in disguise”, said Kartik Shahani, Regional Director – India, McAfee.
