Crims Target Celebrities In Cyberspace

McAfee recently published its latest list of celebrities who have unwittingly become the bait by which to lure more money out of innocent interent surfers.
According to McAfee’s press release, at the top of the list is A-lister Jessica Beil, followed closely by Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston, American football player Tom Brady and Jessica Simpson. Beil takes over from Brad Pitt, who comes in at number 10.

Australia’s top five are Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Delta Goodrem, Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Hawkins.

So how does it work. It’s as obvious as it is simple. Cybercrims target websites that pander in gossip and innuendo that feature well known celebrities. They also hit fan and official websites too, but putting spyware or malware on these sites. According to McAfee some of these websites have a one in five chance of having tested positive for sort of threat including phishing, spam, adware or a virus.

Problem is, the poor old celebrity gets hit twice. One, their site gets infected, but two, and more importantly, if a site becomes too infected people will stay away from it. Anybody with even an inkling of how the whole celebrity/Hollywood thing works, knows that it’s all about profile, profile, profile. And with the Internet now arguably one of the premium outlets of celebrity culture, this cannot be a good thing for emerging talent.