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‘Cameron Diaz’ tops online search danger list
One in 10 internet searches for actress lead to ‘risky’ sites, according to survey
The Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz is a dangerous woman. A survey has discovered that hers is the name most likely to be used by crooks to lead internet users to "booby-trapped" websites where malicious software - malware - will infect their computers.
Cyber-criminals who run such sites often use celebrity names to lure unwary browsers. The survey, conducted on behalf of the antivirus software group McAfee, shows that Diaz, currently starring opposite Tom Cruise in Knight and Day, is the criminals' number one choice.
She is followed closely by two other actresses, Julia Roberts and Jessica Biel, and the lingerie models Gisele Buendchen and Adriana Lima.
"Anyone looking for the latest videos or pictures could end up with a malware-ridden computer instead of just trendy content," said Dave Marcus of McAfee.
"They [the cyber-criminals] know that people want to have screensavers of popular individuals. They follow hot topics on the web and create their poisonous content accordingly and [lay] traps based on the latest trends."
McAfee's research was carried out last month. It showed that more than one in 10 internet searches about Diaz led to "risky websites" while one in five sites sites reached through searching the term 'Cameron Diaz screensavers' turned out to be rigged with malicious code. ·
