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Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt, who has had the nation going crazy with her movies, jokes and memes, tops the list of “most sensational celebrity” as cyber crooks use her name to lure netizens to malicious websites, security software maker McAfee on Sunday said.
In its eighth edition this year, McAfee’s Most Sensational Celebrity survey has found Bhatt topping the charts in Indian cyberspace, followed by Aamir Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Shahrukh and Salman Khan.
McAfee researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest celebrity across the web and this year, Bhatt trumped Chopra, who had topped the list in 2013, McAfee said in a statement.
“As cyber criminals exploit consumers’ need to be updated on celebrity news, the survey highlights the pitfalls of the trend. These criminals capitalise on the public’s fascination to lure them to sites loaded with malware, which in turn allows them to steal passwords and personal information,” it added.
This year, searching for a ‘celebrity name’ coupled with search terms like ‘wallpaper’, ‘videos’, ‘free download’, ‘hot pictures’, ‘selfie’ and ‘internet memes’ have resulted in instances of malware-laden sites.
Alia topped the list with 81 infected search results, followed by Aamir Khan (78 malicious sites), Priyanka Chopra (69), Shahrukh and Salman Khan (64 each), Katrina Kaif (63), Shradha Kapoor (62), Ranveer Singh (61), Deepika Padukone (60), Hrithik Roshan (59) and Sonakshi Sinha with 58 malware-ridden websites to her name.
“By including the names of popular celebrities in a website’s search tags, consumers are completely unaware of the security risks that exist which can severely infect their computers, devices and steal personal data,” Venkat Krishnapur, Vice-President of Engineering- Consumer, Business Group, McAfee India Centre, McAfee, Part of Intel Security said.
Cyber criminals are consistently looking for ways to take advantage of consumer interest around new movies, TV shows, as well as the latest celebrity-driven trends, he added.
Actors like Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar and Sunny Leone have all dropped out of this year’s list. In 2013, they were in the top 10.
McAfee said users must beware of clicking on third party links and ensure they use web protection that notifies them of risky sites or links before they visit them.
“You should access content directly from official websites of content providers. For example, visit ABC.com to find Jimmy Kimmel?s latest episodes,” it added.
Also, users should refrain from downloading videos from suspect sites and “free downloads” since it is by far the highest virus-prone search term.
