Jessica Biel

Brad Pitt used to top the list as the most dangerous celebrity in the Internet. This year however, Jessica Biel beat him.

McAfee, an internet security company, released a list of celebrities that are considered the most dangerous to search for on the internet. They said that in clicking Jessica Biel, there’s one-in-five chance of a fan landing at a website that contains spyware, adware, spam, phishing or viruses. Sometimes it’s difficult being popular. I wonder how will this make the sexy star feel? Moreover, how will the avid fan feel once the virus starts messing up his computer?

A McAfee representative explained that everyday, cybercriminals use celebrities’ names and images to lure surfers who are searching for the latest stories, screen savers and ringtones to sites offering free downloads laden with malware. I guess this is telling us not to be so fast in clicking those free downloads. If cybercriminals use celebrity names, it’s also very much possible that they use movie titles. So, those who surfs for free movie downloads, should better watch out too.

Back to the celebrity list, second was pop star Beyonce. McAfee found out that putting “Beyonce ringtones” into a search engine leads to a dangerous website that links to a distributor of adware and spyware.

Third is, my favorite, Jennifer Aniston. 40 percent of the Google search results for “Jennifer Aniston Screensavers” contains hostile viruses.

Last year, Brad Pitt topped the list and on 2007, Paris Hilton came in first. These cybercriminals must be also really into showbiz, they also follow who’s hot and who’s not.