Megastar Mammootty has been named the ‘Most Dangerous Celebrity’ of Mollywood in Indian cyberspace, according to a study unveiled by McAfee, world’s largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee researched Malayalee popular culture’s most famous people to create a ranking of ‘Most Dangerous Celebrity’ based on the risk quotient of Mollywood celebrities in Indian cyberspace. According to the study, there are 51 infected search results online associated with Mammootty.
Superstar Mohanlal comes closer to Mammooty with 50 infected search results online while Prithviraj comes third with 49 infected search results.
McAfee researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal riskiest celebrity sportsmen, actors and politicians across the web and unveil the 2013 rendition of ‘Most Dangerous Celebrity’ research. The study highlights the trend of cyber criminals using celebs to take advantage of fans seeking more information about their idols.
Cyber criminals often lure unsuspecting supporters to sites laden with malware that can steal passwords and personal information. These criminals capitalize on the public’s fascination with celebrity to lure them to sites laden with malware that enables them to steal passwords and personal information. This year, searching for a celebrity name coupled with the search terms ‘wall paper’, ‘videos’, ‘nude pictures’ resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites.
“In India where celebrities are given the status of demi gods, cyber criminals often use their names to lure people to sites that actually host malicious software designed to compromise personal details and disrupt devices. By including the names of popular celebrities in a website’s search tags, cyber criminals are able to direct more visitors to malicious sites where they may unwittingly sign up for spam or harmful spyware ending up with a malware ridden devices,” said Venkatasubrahmanyam Krishnapur, vice-president of Engineering - Consumer and Mobile, Business Group, McAfee India Centre commenting on the findings of the study.