Graham Norton tops league of risky celebrity searches online!
Our fascination with celebrity lifestyle is making us prey to cyber criminals.
TV presenter Graham Norton’s name has been ranked as the most dangerous due to search results potentially leading internet users to install malware on their devices without realising.
Cyber criminals tend to use the names of celebrities to entice web users to click on harmful links. This can result in viruses being installed on a device, and personal data being harvested.
Research by cybersecurity firm McAfee has found that the names of famous UK personalities were a popular choice for scams this year.
Raj Samani, chief scientist and McAfee Fellow, said, “We know that online criminals use consumers’ fascination with celebrity culture to drive unsuspecting fans to malicious websites that install malware on their devices, potentially putting personal information and log-in details in the wrong hands, so it’s no surprise that we’ve seen one of the UK’s most-loved national treasures topping the list, with hackers exploiting his popularity.”
The company’s report shows that Ricky Gervais and Tom Hardy rank second and third respectively on the list of names being used by cyber criminals to lure web users.
Ruth Jones comes in at fourth place, Sir Mick Jagger in fifth, Australian actor Margot Robbie in sixth, Idris Elba in seventh, Kate Moss in eighth, American model Bella Hadid in ninth and UK baking legend Mary Berry in tenth position.
McAfee encouraged Internet users to be careful when clicking links.