Lily Collins is "Most dangerous" cyber celebrity of 2013: McAfee

SANTA CLARA, USA: Lily Collins, star of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Mirror, Mirror, has replaced Emma Watson as McAfee's most dangerous celebrity to search for online. For the seventh year in a row, McAfee researched popular culture's most famous people to reveal the riskiest Hollywood actors, musicians, comedians, and personalities on the Web. The McAfee Most Dangerous CelebritiesTM study revealed that women are more dangerous than men, with nine of the top ten being female. Following Lily Collins, Avril Lavigne takes the number two spot and Sandra Bullock comes in third. Jon Hamm is the only male to make the top 10 list this year. Musicians also comprise nine of the top twenty most dangerous celebrities.

Cybercriminals consistently take advantage of consumer interest around award shows, new movies and TV shows as well as the latest cultural trends driven by celebrities. 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 "free app download" and "nude pictures" resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites.

"Today's consumers often are completely unaware of security risks when searching for celebrity and entertainment news, images and videos online, sacrificing safety for immediacy," said Paula Greve, director of web security research at McAfee. "Cybercriminals prey on consumers' addiction to breaking news and leverage this behavior to lead them to unsafe sites that can severely infect their computers and devices and steal personal data."

Lily Collins Searches Yield a Nearly One-in-Seven Chance of Landing on a Malicious Site

Fans searching for "Lily Collins and free downloads," "Lily Collins and nude pictures," "Lily Collins and fakes," and "Lily Collins and free app downloads" are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information, such as email addresses and passwords. Clicking on these risky sites and downloading files such as pictures and videos expose surfers to a larger risk of downloading viruses and malware.

McAfee research found that searching for the latest Lily Collins pictures and downloads yields more than a 14.5 pc chance of landing on a website that has tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

The study uses McAfee SiteAdvisor site ratings, which indicate which sites are risky to search when attached to celebrity names on the Web and calculate an overall risk percentage. The top 10 celebrities from this year's study with the highest percentages of risk are:

Position Celebrity Percentage

1 Lily Collins 14.5 pc

2 Avril Lavigne 12.7 pc

3 Sandra Bullock 10.8 pc

4 Kathy Griffin 10.6 pc

5 Zoe Saldana 10.5 pc

6 Katy Perry 10.4 pc

7 Britney Spears 10.1 pc

8 Jon Hamm 10.0 pc

9 Adriana Lima 9.9 pc

10 Emma Roberts 9.8 pc

Women are More Dangerous than Men

Jon Hamm (No. 8) is the only man to rank in the top 10, followed by Justin Timberlake (No. 12) and Patrick Dempsey (No. 13) in the top 20.

Musicians Sing Their Way to the Top

Searching for musicians, especially young female pop stars, yields malware and risky websites. Seventeen musicians make the top 50 list, with three of them ranking in the top 10: Avril Lavigne (No. 2), Katy Perry (No. 6), and Britney Spears (No. 7). Other musicians at play include: Shakira (No. 11), Justin Timberlake (No. 12), Selena Gomez (No. 14), Demi Lovato (No. 16), Miley Cyrus (No. 20), Rihanna (No. 28), Lady Gaga (No. 30), Beyoncé (No. 34), and Pitbull (No. 50).

Dangerously Funny Men & Women

Sandra Bullock (No. 3), Kathy Griffin (No. 4), Amy Poehler (No. 17), Ellen DeGeneres (No. 23), Jimmy Fallon (No. 24), and Jimmy Kimmel (No. 39) all rank in the top 50.

Battle of the TV Personalities

Let the battle rounds begin between The Voice co-judges Blake Shelton and Adam Levine! Searching for Blake Shelton (No. 21) is more dangerous than doing so for Adam Levine (No. 32). Searching for downloads of Kanye West (No. 22) is more risky than searching for his new Kardashian family: Kourtney Kardashian (No. 27), Kim Kardashian (No. 35), Khloe Kardashian (No. 36), and Kris Jenner (No. 38). Media mogul and TV host Ryan Seacrest (No. 40) rounds out the top 40.

Latinas Heat Up the List

This year, four Latina women are in the top 20: Shakira (No. 11), Selena Gomez (No. 14), Demi Lovato (No. 16), and Eva Mendes (No. 19). Additional Latina women spicing up the top 50 are Sofia Vergara (No. 26), Jessica Alba (No. 31), and Salma Hayek (No. 43).

From One Year to Another

Emma Watson, Jessica Biel, and Megan Fox have all dropped out of this year's list (in 2012 they ranked No. 1, No. 2, and No. 6, respectively).