COLUMBUS (WCMH) — It’s no joke. If you don’t want to infect your computer, you might want to refrain from searching for comedian Amy Schumer.
Intel Security announced its annual list of the “McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities” to search for while surfing the Web, and queen of laughter Amy Schumer topped the list.
Right behind Schumer was Justin Bieber and Carson Daly.
McAfee says cybercriminals often leverage celebrity fandom for their own abuse. They take advantage of search engines to provide lines that send users to unsafe sites, where sneaky tactics for stealing data and usernames are awaiting.
So what can you do to protect yourself? McAfee provides the following three tips:
- Watch media from original sources. Miss an episode Inside Amy Schumer? Sure you may need to catch up, but don’t just trust every link out there. Get the original videos at comedycentral.com or another trusted streaming service like Hulu. This goes for any media you want to view: stick to the official source or well-known and trusted services.
- Be wary of searching for file downloads. Out of all the celebrity-related searches we conducted, “torrent” was the riskiest by far. That’s because cybercriminals often embed malware within authentic files, making it tricky to detect safe from unsafe downloads. More often than not, it’s best to avoid using torrents in the first place – especially when so many legitimate streaming options are available.
- Use security protection for browsing. Many software products can scan webpages you’re browsing – alerting you to malicious websites and potential threats. This can keep you safe as you study up on all the latest gossip. McAfee® WebAdvisor is great at this, and you can download a (safe) complimentary version right here.
Here’s the full top 10 “Most Dangerous Celebrities”: