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Don't Google Emma Watson, Most 'Dangerous' Cyber Celebrity

By Admin on September 17, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Emma Watson doesn't look dangerous but she could be bad for you, or at least for your computer.

It's not anything personal about the 'Harry Potter' star but her popularity makes her a target for cyber criminals. That means Internet searchers looking for information about Watson could be directed to spam sites rather than relatively harmless gossip.

This isn't just a suspicion about Watson's popularity. Tech security company McAfee took the guesswork out of it by creating a list of famous names most likely to lead to malware or other Internet woes.

Watson is the most dangerous celebrity to search online with a one-in-eight chance that searches will land on a malicious site instead of finding celebrity news, reports the New York Post.

She's not the only risky celebrity when it comes to searching. Jessica Biel and Eva Mendes are also high on the list which is filled with mostly women. It's unclear why cyber criminals tend to use female celebrities as a way to lure in unsuspecting victims but McAfee reports only one male celebrity made the list.

Congrats Jimmy Kimmel. Or maybe not since it means fans searching for news about Kimmel may be led astray.

All this bad news doesn't mean you can't search for news on your favorite celebrities. It's just a reminder to be careful when you do it.

How you ask? Be smart about what you click.

If you love good celebrity gossip as much as we do, you know what sites have the news. If you don't recognize the site be very careful before you click on it.

Once you find a site that has the news you're looking for, don't download anything you didn't ask for. Avoid giving out personal information on those sites since that's what a hacker would be looking for.

Even if you end up on a potentially malicious site, if you don't click or give up your information, there's not a lot of harm done.

Have you been the victim of a cyber crime? Being online doesn't make it any less still illegal so let an attorney help you stop it from happening to others.

Emma Watson's newest film comes out in late September so cyber criminals are likely using the added publicity to draw in targets. Be smart about your online searching so you can still keep up on latest news about the 'dangerous' star.

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