Actress Ruby Rose topped a list in the US of celebrities who generate the most search results linking to malicious websites released by cybersecurity firm McAfee.
If you want to stay clear of malware, don’t search for these people. Every year the cybersecurity firm McAffe releases a list of the celebrities who generate the most search results linking to malicious websites. Often riddled with viruses and designed to install malware on users’ machines or steal passwords and personal information, spammers have long turned to celebrities to try and entice people to click on their sites.
The list of names shows a significant change from last year’s top ten, with significantly fewer musicians cropping up this time around. Actresses Marion Cotillard was number three, and Lynda Carter landed the fourth position, whereas the first musician to come up on the list was Adele at number 21.
Across each country analyzed, famous men were few and far between. Celebrities range per area. Ruby Rose may have come up top for US search results, but in the UK Kim Kardashian took the highest place. In America, of all the names that were announced, the top nine were women with actor Brad William Henke taking the number ten spot, which gives an indication as to who malware creators tend to target and the type of people likely to click on dubious links.