According to this list recently published by McAfee, Jessica Biel is the most dangerous celebrity on the Web. No, that doesn’t mean she’s going to come out of the screen and strangle you to death with the mouse cable; it means that if you look for information, photos, wallpapers, videos or any other material related to her on the Internet, chances are you’ll end up in a potentially harmful website that can put your system in danger.
After three years, the McAfee list of riskiest celebrities online has almost become a tradition but I’m not sure about its usefulness. What’s the point of scaring people away from searching for stuff about their idols? To me, it looks more like a marketing trick to sell more security-related software apps – while the top celebrity surely gets a boost in Google searches. In any case, whatever the final purpose of this list is, the truth is that according to McAfee,
…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.
So you’d better be prepared. Protecting your computer when browsing the Web is easier than it seems. Just follow these simple tips and you won’t have any problems – no matter which celebrity you’re searching for:
- The first and most important rule: use common sense. Don’t trust those banners that promise you a fantastic car because you happen to be visitor #1,000,000.
- Celebrity material is a good bait. Be careful when searching for goodies related to your idols and don’t forget to analyze all files with an antivirus before opening them.
- Use a firewall to protect your system. A free, easy solution like ZoneAlarm, Jetico or PC Tools Firewall will do.
- Use an antivirus with web filtering capabilities against online threats, like AVG Antivirus. It’ll make your Web browsing safer.
