McAfee associates itself with Jessica Biel
Terrible activity. Associating yourself with hi-res images of celebrities in an attempt to widen your userbase and gain random Google traffic? McAfee ought to be SICK of itself.
Here’s the photo McAfee sent out. As evidence.
Here’s the press release. Also as evidence.
McAfee, Inc. Names Jessica Biel the Most Dangerous Celebrity in Cyberspace
Brad Pitt Loses His Title as the Most Dangerous as McAfee’s Third Annual Report Reveals the Riskiest Celebrities to Search on the Web
SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jessica Biel has overtaken Brad Pitt as the most dangerous celebrity to search in cyberspace, according to Internet security company McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE). For the third year in a row, McAfee researched Hollywood’s glamorous stars and pop culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest celebrities on the Web. McAfee’s latest report found that searches for Barack or Michelle Obama posed a lesser threat compared to others.
Fans searching for “Jessica Biel” or “Jessica Biel downloads,” “Jessica Biel wallpaper,” “Jessica Biel screen savers,” “Jessica Biel photos” and “Jessica Biel videos” have a one in five chance of landing at a Web site that’s tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware. Searching for the latest celebrity news and downloads can cause serious damage to one’s personal computer.
Every day, cybercriminals use celebrities’ names and images, like Kim Kardashian and Rihanna, to lure surfers searching for the latest stories, screen savers and ringtones to sites offering free downloads laden with malware.
Beyonce – Number Two for Two Years Counting
Pop music phenom Beyoncé maintained her number two position for the second consecutive year, setting McAfee’s record as the overall most frequent, highly-ranked celebrity in the top five.
Young Hollywood – Just as Dangerous to Search as They Are FamousYoung Hollywood starlets (and popular tabloid subjects) Miley Cyrus, Ashley Tisdale and Lindsay Lohan all edged out Heidi Montag and Jessica Alba who appeared on last year’s list. They also ranked higher than other young personalities including “Twilight” stars Robert Pattinson (#30) and Kristen Stewart (#20), the Jonas Brothers (#23), Taylor Swift (#16), Lauren Conrad (#25) Vanessa Hudgens (#17) and Zac Efron (#21).
Beware of Dangerous Duos
Hollywood stand outs Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie have more in common than their appearance and successful careers – they tied as the eighth most dangerous celebrities on the Web. Newlyweds Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen appeared nearly side-by-side in the fourth and sixth positions, respectively, proving that hackers target those who are most in the headlines.
Who’s Safer: The Obamas
Surprisingly, the U.S. President and First Lady are not among the most risky public figures to search; Barack and Michelle Obama ranked in the bottom-third of this year’s results, at #34 and #39, respectively.
McAfee compiled its third annual list using McAfee(r) SiteAdvisor(r) technology for celebrity names that produce the largest number of risky sites and overall risk percentage, when searched on the Web. The top 15 celebrities include:
1 Jessica Biel – Major buzz about her figure and high-profile relationship with Justin Timberlake makes Jessica Biel an easy target for spammers and hackers. When “Jessica Biel screensavers” was searched, almost half of the sites were identified as containing malicious downloads with spyware, adware and potential viruses.
2 Beyoncé – Beyonce tops the MTV Video Music Award nominee list and McAfee’s results as the most frequent, highly-ranked celebrity. Inputting “Beyoncé ringtones” into a search engine yielded a dangerous Web site linking to a distributor of adware and spyware.
3 Jennifer Aniston – Hollywood’s favorite leading lady should be searched with caution. More than 40% of the Google search results for “Jennifer Aniston screensavers” contained nasty viruses, including one called the “FunLove virus.”
4 Tom Brady – The New England Patriot seems to attract many fans who want a free download of the athlete in action, but not the Trojan that comes with it, as identified by McAfee SiteAdvisor technology.
5 Jessica Simpson – Jessica Simpson is as dangerous to search online as she is famous. Searching for “Jessica Simpson videos” can mislead unsuspecting surfers to sites with potentially damaging downloads.
6 Gisele Bundchen – The world’s highest-paid supermodel is a popular target for cybercriminals. A search for “Gisele Bundchen photos” can direct users to red-ranked sites that breached browser security in McAfee’s tests.
7 Miley Cyrus – Cybercriminals are using Web sites related to Miley Cyrus’ image to link to other harmful sites containing spyware.
8 Megan Fox, Angelina Jolie – Both tabloid fixture Megan Fox and American icon Angelina Jolie resulted in an equal number of risky download Web sites, proving cybercriminals are in the business of capitalizing on the world’s most famous faces.
9 Ashley Tisdale – The “High School Musical” star is a popular search term when it comes to searching for screensavers. A host of screensaver Web sites contained numerous malware-laden downloads.
10 Brad Pitt – Appearing in the top spot last year, Brad Pitt fell towards the bottom of this year’s list, resulting in a few less, but just as dangerous, red and yellow-ranked Web sites.
11 Reese Witherspoon – Risky Web sites were identified when searching for “Reese Witherspoon” and “Reese Witherspoon photos” promoting free files with hidden malware.12 Britney Spears – McAfee SiteAdvisor technology found a single site promoting free Britney Spears wallpaper that was embedded with more than 50 potentially infected downloads.
13 Rihanna – Free Rihanna ringtones are some of the most sought after, but some shady vendors mislead those who subscribe by gathering and selling their personal information.
14 Lindsay Lohan – McAfee SiteAdvisor flagged Lindsay Lohan screen saver sites as offering a combined 50+ free screen savers infected with Trojans, viruses and spyware.
15 Kim Kardashian – The biggest reality star in recent months is now susceptible to Internet lurkers too. A search for Kim Kardashian wallpaper and screen savers generated numerous downloads veiled with malware.
filed in PROMOTIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY on Aug.28, 2009




August 28th, 2009 on 1:19 pm
This was in the Metro today:
http://glumcouncillors.tumblr.com/
August 28th, 2009 on 1:40 pm
Trilby – Shows promise but needs tags and a search facility so you can quickly see if any from your local council are there…
Back on topic though, Jessica Biel linked with viruses? Dirty girl…
I smell a lawsuit against McAfee for libel/slander (whichever it is)
Nice how they don’t offer advice as to which celebrities are the safest to look for, that wouldn’t been more useful, surely?
Su Pollard? Jeanette Krankie? Lynsey De Paul?
August 28th, 2009 on 3:29 pm
She is a dirty, dirty, girl!
August 28th, 2009 on 6:22 pm
[...] McAfee associates itself with Jessica Biel – EXTRA-LAST 28Aug2009 Filed under: McAfee Author: Author Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.Powered by WP Greet Box(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jessica Biel has overtaken Brad Pitt as the most dangerous celebrity to search in cyberspace, according to Internet security company McAfee, Inc. (NYSE:MFE). For the third year in a row, McAfee researched Hollywood’s … Link: McAfee associates itself with Jessica Biel – EXTRA-LAST [...]
September 2nd, 2009 on 2:34 pm
Giger – and how will Jennifer Aniston feel about her association with the “FunLove” virus?
September 2nd, 2009 on 2:48 pm
What the?
That information wasn’t there before was it? That list of 15 celebrities in order of who’s the most ‘dangerous’ to search for*? And stating the Obamas are safer?
I’m sure that wasn’t there before…
(*If you’re a complete and utter tard)
And I’m sure there’s a mistake on #5 –
It says: “Searching for “Jessica Simpson videos” can mislead unsuspecting surfers to sites with potentially damaging downloads”
Where I think it’s meant to say: “Searching for “Jessica Simpson videos” can lead unsuspecting surfers to a copy of the potentially damaging “Dukes of Hazzard” remake.