You are more likely to catch something nasty from
Britney Spears than
Paris Hilton or
Jessica Simpson, according to a new study.
Internet searches for celebrities -- especially the naked variety -- risk returning results that contain viruses, adware, spyware, malicious code and other hazards to your computer's health, according to McAfee SiteAdvisor's new search engine safety report.
In a threat analysis of the websites returned in 2,300 popular searches, between 11 and 20 per cent of results for nude actors, actresses and singers linked to precarious websites.
For example, one in five of the web addresses returned on a search for "Britney Spears nude" were considered potential threats, while 15 per cent of results for "
Carmen Electra nude" were linked to dangerous sites. By contrast, SiteAdvisor identified hazards in just four per cent of search results overall.
The message is clear enough: Celebrity skin demands the use of protection.
"The bad guys want to choose terms which they think are going to be popular, that a lot of people are going to be searching," says John Aycock, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Calgary.
That the flesh of stripped-down stars is a favourite cover for malicious software is a sign of the times, Aycock says.
"It's a reflection of our culture and the degree to which sex drives everything -- not just the Internet."
According to SiteAdvisor, a security tool that annotates search results with red (dangerous), yellow (somewhat risky) and green (safe) icons, some of the most hazardous in-the-buff bods belong to: Spears (20 per cent of results using the keyword 'nude' are flagged red or yellow),
Pamela Anderson (15 per cent), Electra (15 per cent) and Jessica Simpson (14 per cent).