Kylie is most dangerous Aussie celeb to search for

Pop legend Kylie Minogue is the most dangerous Australian celebrity to search for on the internet, according to an annual study from McAfee.

Kylie beat out her sister Dannii, last year’s most dangerous celebrity, in an analysis of risky sites. Cybercriminals use the names of famous people to lure victims to web pages laden with malware or set up to steal passwords and personal information.

Around 10.5% of results for searches involving Kylie Minogue were categorised as risky under McAfee’s SiteAdvisor ratings.

The female of the species is more deadly than the male, with singer Guy Sebastian the only male celebrity to make the top 10 list. The same was true for the list of international dangerous celebrities, which this year was topped by actress Lily Collins.

Predictably, the search results that turned up the highest numbers of risky sites included a celebrity’s name with “nude pictures” appended. Other consistently risky search terms to include are “free download” and “free app download”.

“Cybercriminals often use the attraction of a celebrity name to draw web surfers to compromised websites that contain malicious downloads or viruses,” McAfee Consumer Marketing Director Melanie Duca said.

Image courtesy of Eva Rinaldi under CC