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Tamil cinema’s light-eyed beauty Trisha Krishnan has emerged the hot favorite among cyber criminals. She has been named the most dangerous celebrity based on the risk quotient of Kollywood stars in Indian cyberspace.
Capitalizing on her popularity among fans, cybercriminals have created about 80 infected websites in her name that lure unsuspecting fans to sites laden with malware to steal digital information, reveals a study by a security technology firm.
Among top five celebrities whose names have been used to create such fake websites are Arya (63), Surya (62), Samantha (55) and Vijay (50), says security tech firm McAfee that researched Tamil culture’s most famous people to reveal riskiest celebrities across the web.
The study highlighted the trend of cyber criminals using the names of celebrities to take advantage of fans’ fascination to seek more information about their idols and download their movies and pictures. After luring the public to sites embedded with malware, these criminals steal passwords and personal information of the visiting public.
This year, searching for a celebrity name coupled with the search terms ‘wallpaper’, ‘videos’, ‘nude pictures’ resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites.
Among other celebrity names that are misused in the cyber space are Kamal Hassan in sixth position with 45 infected websites in his name, his daughter Shurti with 42 sites, Shriya Saran with 40 sites, superstar Rajinikanth (31) and 'Kolaveri Di' sensation Dhanush with 23 infected sites.
“In India where celebrities are given the status of demi gods, cybercriminals often use their names to lure people to sites that host malicious software designed to compromise personal details and disrupt devices,” said Mr Venkatasubrahmanyam Krishnapur, vice-president of McAfee India Centre.
By including their names in a website’s search tags, cyber criminals are able to direct more visitors to malicious sites where they may unwittingly sign up for spam or harmful spyware, he said advising to ensure downloads only from official websites, using password protection on phones and using updated security software to check such phishing frauds.
Stars speak:
"I have heard about fake IDs and sometimes it turns out to be a menace. I just hope my fans know which is the ‘real me’ because I give only genuine handle in all my interviews. It is a major occupational hazard and I wish people weren’t this jobless. I wish something can be done to stop those people because such news and pictures can be misleading." — Trisha
"I find it really strange and funny when people tell me that they chatted with me online, because I am not in any of the social networking media be it Twitter or Facebook. I am also aware that there are many fake accounts of mine which upload pictures and other things impersonating me. I only wish there could be some guidelines to rein in this problem." — Arya
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