10 Most Dangerous Celebrities on the Internet
Most celebrities have learned the hard way that fame is a fickle friend indeed. It can make or break your life, financial and familial stability. And at times, it can affect you in ways you would never have imagined. In today’s tech-oriented age, the internet is a primary mode of channeling this fame across the globe. Publicists and PR teams work tirelessly to filter online content about their celebrity, particularly controversial or fake material.
However, with tons of information available online, it often becomes difficult to filter everything out. While veteran celebrities are used to the most shocking rumors and controversies surrounding them, they can seldom be prepared for being branded the most dangerous celebrity on the internet. No; this category is not created by some individuals interacting on a social media platform, but by cyber-security company McAfee. McAfee is one of the leading anti-virus creators in the world, and it has been conducting a study into celebrity click-baits for the past eleven years and publishing the results online. These click-baits can be in the shape of a faulty song-download, stand-up tour video or pirated film download links.
While a user may learn that the video or song was a fake link, viruses undetected to the naked eye would end up in their system and damage the software severely. Virus protection software such as McAfee and built-in operating system antivirus can lower the risk of these dangerous items entering the computer, but they are not a guarantee. Therefore, McAfee has begun conducting a study into one of the most frequently browsed segments on the internet— celebrities, and which celebrity’s name results in the biggest click-bait. In 2016, this title belonged to Amy Schumer, and to trance DJ van Burren the year before that. In 2017, however, the rankings have changed and here are the Top 10 Most Dangerous Celebrities on the Internet for this year, and a little something about them.
1. Avril Lavigne
The Canadian punk-pop sensation was one of the biggest global superstars in the early 2000s. Her debut single “Complicated” instantly set her onto a career which would gain multi-regional acclaim for the then-seventeen year old. She later married and divorced Nickelback front-man, Chad Kroeger and produced music with him during this time. From the past five years, however, the singer has remained out of the limelight without any explanations whatsoever. In an exclusive interview with People Magazine in 2016, she admitted to having fought Lyme disease while she was away.
McAfee has discovered that Avril Lavigne’s search results consist of the maximum amount of click-baits and spam that can contain viruses, nearly 22% of chances. The software creators advise that the singer’s songs should be downloaded from safe channels and piracy should be avoided at all times.
McAfee has also proposed explanations as to why Avril Lavigne’s engine searches are more prone to this than other artists’ in 2017. The pop icon has had conspiracy theories revolving around her online, particularly one that the singer died at age 19 in 2004 and since then a doppelganger named Melissa is pretending to be the singer. While the theory has been disproven, it has sparked internet discussions and, as a result, many websites lacking in credibility and security are supporting articles related to these. A fan or curious individual searching up on the conspiracy could easily visit any one of these sites and have their system exposed to dangerous content. Another reason provided by McAfee is the fact that Lavigne had announced the release of a new album at the end of 2017, and the album has still not come out nor does it have a release date. Therefore, since the news is there, spammers have created faulty “downloadable” links to her supposed latest album.
2. Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars has an international appeal which, unfortunately, puts the hip-hop sensation into piracy debacles in various countries. Countries in Asia and Africa often do not have strict cyber-piracy regulation which causes all kinds of insecure avenues for artists’ works to come up on search engines. While Google and other reputable search engines constantly trying to fight piracy and illegal content, they cannot fully regulate it. As a result, many people are unaware of downloading faulty content which could be virus-prone.
3. Carly Rae Jepsen
The “Call Me Maybe” singer hails from Canada and is number three on this list. This song by Jepsen, in particular, has gained international fame and become one of the key songs to describe this generation. It goes right up with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” in becoming a common internet meme reference. This may be a key reason that Carly Rae Jepsen has nearly thirteen percent chances of ending you up on a harmful website online.
4. Zayn Malik
The once boyband-belonging sensation from Yorkshire U.K, Zayn Malik, has embarked on a solo career since 2015.In doing so, Malik has essentially rebranded himself anew and therefore, his new material that has come out does not have the strict piracy regulations that One Direction, his band’s material did. Malik is yet an emerging name in the music world and on the internet, but one that is highly awaited by fans of his former band. Therefore, these fans often tend to download whatever material is available without checks and balances. As a result, the singer ranks at number four as the most susceptible searches to malware.
5. Celine Dion
The legendary singer hailing from Quebec, Canada has been a global superstar since the early 90s. The superstar has songs for blockbusters such as Titanic and for Disney classics such as Beauty and the Beast. As a result, generations of movie and music enthusiasts have been discovering her music over and over again after watching either of these movies. These individuals are often young and not well-rehearsed in the ways of the internet. Therefore, they often end up downloading one of the numerous faulty links for Dion’s songs and albums.
6. Calvin Harris
This one was a bit of a surprise because Harris is not too big a name on the international platform. The one global credit to him is that he once dated pop star Taylor Swift. However, perhaps Harris is subjected to online piracy because of the nature of his work. He is a DJ and music producer. Therefore, his content is mostly displayed online or in live concerts, rather than on television. As a result, there is a great deal of content for Harris online which may or may not contain malware. According to McAfee, more than ten percent of this content does contain malware.
7. Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber has grown up in the limelight. His personal and work life has been out in the open for a decade now and the 23-year old has fans across the globe. Bieber’s music is listened to in many different countries and piracy laws tend to be relaxed in many of these. And given his stardom, the singer is in great demand as well. This is an ideal combination for hackers and malware creators who can market entire websites full of harmful content at susceptible consumers.
8. Sean “Diddy” Combs
The American rapper is one of the highest paid recording artists of all time. His albums and singles are marketed and bought mostly on the internet and the artist has sold over a million albums worldwide. With so much reliance on the internet, Diddy cannot maintain virus-free content or regulate legal sales of his material entirely. Hackers take advantage of this fact and create all sorts of malware posing as Diddy’s songs. This has worked for them and the rapper’s name searches round up about nine percent of malware.
9. Katy Perry
The global pop sensation ranks number nine on this list, after hitting over a billion views on YouTube with her single “Roar”. Katy Perry’s songs and albums are internet favorites and generate millions of views across the globe within a matter of minutes. As a result, she has internet presence and hackers seize this opportunity. “Katy Perry MP3” is the most frequent generator of malware as pirated and wrongful ‘free’ links to supposed Katy Perry songs are around all the time.
10. Beyonce
Queen Bey ranks last on a list? Is that even possible? Well, in the case of this list, it’s probably a good thing that she ranks last. Beyonce is not just an artist but a phenomenon internationally as she is revered for her powerful lyrics, incredible stage presence and persona. Beyonce has often been the subject of internet memes along with her husband, the acclaimed rapper Jay-Z. Because since there is so much power attached to her name, online surfers become responsive and hackers take advantage of this.
So here they are, the 10 Most Dangerous Celebrities on the Internet. The list published by McAfee contains many more celebrities as well, with actors such as Anna Kendrick ranking in the 30s. In fact, conducting research for this blog post became a tricky endeavor as well since we had to search these ‘dangerous’ celebrities on the internet. Here’s hoping we have come out of it unscathed, and that you have ended up as a better-informed internet surfer as a result of it.
