Cameron Diaz named the most dangerous celeb on the Internet

Who knew that loving Cameron Diaz could be so risky? Turns out that searching the Web for the bubbly blond star comes with this year's highest chance of encountering corrupt sites and malicious software.

Searching for "Cameron Diaz" brings bad news — in the form of risky sites — in one of every 10 search results, according to McAfee's Most Dangerous Celebrities study. Make the search terms "Cameron Diaz" and "screensavers," and that 10% chance of danger almost doubles. The "Knight and Day" star replaces last year's No. 1, Jessica Biel.

"Cybercriminals follow the same hot topics as consumers and create traps based on the latest trends," said McAfee security sleuth Dave Marcus. Viruses and malware, often designed to steal personal information, lie in wait for users who download photos, videos or screensavers from malicious sites.

Rounding out the list, in descending order: Julia Roberts, Biel in third place, Gisele Bundchen, Brad Pitt, model Adriana Lima, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Nicole Kidman in a tie (likely the only time Love Hewitt will share a title with Kidman), Tom Cruise, Heidi Klum and Penelope Cruz in a tie, and Anna Paquin.

Want to keep your risk low? Keep those searches slightly less sexy — McAfee says President Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are among the safest search names around.

-- Matt Donnelly

Photo: Cameron Diaz is easy on the eyes, but potentially hard on the hard drive. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / For the Los Angeles Times 

Get the latest on Cameron Diaz, and check out other Web-based woes faced by the famous.

Comments

[Les Matheson]

Kudos to McAfee for coming up with a good PR trick to get the paper to publish their name!

But as far as security advice goes, "keep your searches less sexy" is of limited value. "Keep your browser and operating system patches up-to-date" is a lot more reliable.

Most web-based exploits seek to attack on known vulnerabilities which have already been patched by software vendors -- but many people don't apply their patches promptly.

[JaySin420]

So there's a 10% chance I just got a virus for reading this article?

Damn you LA Times.

[cdz from the ministry]

@JaySin420 -- Christie D'Zurilla here from the blog ... ha! I'm willing to bet my paycheck that we fall in the 90% of search results that don't put you face to face with malware.

Just don't trust us if we start pitching you to download a scantily clad Ministry of Gossip screensaver.

:)

//cdz