Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, who is in news for her American TV debut in “Quantico”, tops the list of “most sensational celebrity” as cyber crooks use her name to lure netizens to malicious websites, an Intel Security report said today.
She replaces Alia Bhatt as the ‘most sensational celebrity’ in online search results of 2015. In the surprise moves this year were Shraddha Kapoor’s meteoric rise to number 2 (from number 6 last year) and Kapil Sharma’s number 3 position marking the only TV personality to make to the list, a statement said. “Cyber criminals keep a lookout for ways to take advantage of consumer interest around popular culture events including award shows, TV show premieres, film music launches, celebrity breakups, and more,” Intel Security said.
The report found that this year almost 11.47 per cent of all links generated while evaluating the top ten celebrity names (coupled with search terms ‘Torrent’, ‘HD Download’, and ‘Free MP4’) led to malware ridden or suspicious sites. “Cyber criminals capitalise on consumer interest around popular culture by luring unsuspecting consumers to risky sites to steal sensitive personal data,” Intel Security Group India Engineering Centre Head Venkat Krishnapur said.
Others in the list include Jacqueline Fernandez, Kangana Ranaut, Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Emran Hashmi, Sunny Leone, Alia Bhatt, Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor.
The report said users must beware of clicking on third party links and ensure they use web protection that notifies them of risky sites or links before they visit them.
“Only download videos from well-known, legitimate sites…Use caution when searching for ‘Torrent’. This term is by far the highest virus-prone search term,” it said. Also, do not “log in” or provide other information like credit card, email, home address, Facebook login to get access to content, it added. “Such requests are a common tactic for phishing that could lead to identity theft,” it said.
