Do Not Click This Photo!

Who is the most dangerous person on the Internet?  Turns out it is Emma Watson, the actress who played Hermione Granger in the wildly successful Harry Potter series.  Now Watson is not some kind of nerdy super hacker  like Lisbeth Salander writing codes to destroy your computer’s hard drive and hence your entire life.  No, Watson is actually the bait to lure unsuspecting victims to sites that will launch really nasty viruses and/or steal your identity.

The tech security company McAfee is reporting that Watson tops on the list of famous names that cyber criminals use to lure online searchers.  Watson is not the only celebrity unfortunate enough to be used to entice people to click into cyber hell.  Last year’s list was topped by Heidi Klum (As Heidi likes to say, one day you’re in, the next day you’re out…Auf Wiedersehen).

Men take note; female celebrities are more likely to be utilized by cyber criminals.  Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was the only male in the top 20.  As a public service from CultureMap.com, other risky celebrities to search online are Jessica Biel, Selena Gomez, Halle Berry, Megan Fox, Shakira, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, and Sofia Vergara.

McAfee advises you to be wary about the sites you visit online to get your daily dose of celebrity scandal. Your best bet is to stick to well-known sites from established organizations like www.culturemap.com.  Even so, you still need to practice safe surfing as online charlatans may try to fool you with a genuine-looking URL address that will be sure to lead you into eternal internet damnation.