Comedian Amy Schumer is the “most dangerous celebrity” in terms of search-engine results that may result in computer malware, according to Intel Security’s 10th Annual Most Dangerous Celebrities List.
“Consumers today remain fascinated with celebrity culture and go online to find the latest pop culture news,” Gary Davis, an executive with the cybersecurity division of the technology company Intel, said in a statement Wednesday. “With this craving for real-time information, many search and click without considering potential security risks. Cybercriminals know this and take advantage of this behavior by attempting to lead them to unsafe sites loaded with malware.”
Schumer, 35, is the first female comedian to take the No.1 spot on the list. A search for “Amy Schumer” has a 16.11 percent chance of connecting to a malicious website, the company said. Adding “torrent” to the search, referring to “torrent” computer files that contain data about downloadable files and folders, increases this to 33 percent.
Justin Bieber came in at No. 2, followed by “Today” and “The Voice” host Carson Daly (No. 3). Electronic dance music DJ Armin van Buuren was in first place last year.
The company, maker of McAfee anti-virus software, conducted the study using McAfee WebAdvisor site ratings to determine the number of risky sites generated by Google, Bing and Yahoo! searches of a celebrity name and commonly searched terms. From that, an overall risk percentage was calculated for each celebrity. “Most dangerous means that these celebrities are likely popular search subjects,” the company explained.
