A study carried out by online security technology firm McAfee has revealed a list of Tamil film stars deemed as the most dangerous celebrities online.
Based on the number of infected websites about the actors, the security company has found that actress Trisha tops the list of 'Most Dangerous Celebrities' from Kollywood. According to McAfee, there are 80 infected sites carrying her name.
The south sensation is followed by Arya with 63 and Suriya with 62 infected sites in their names. Stars including Vijay, Samantha, Rajinikanth, Dhanush and Kamal Haasan are also in the list.
Cyber criminals embed the malware in sites with celebrity names. When fans try to access any information or download pictures of their favourite stars from these infected sites, the malware enables cyber criminals to steal personal information of users such as passwords.
Speaking about the study findings, Venkatasubrahmanyam Krishnapur, vice-president of engineering - consumer and mobile, Business Group, McAfee India Centre, told The Times of India, "In India where celebrities are given the status of demi gods, cyber criminals often use their names to lure people to sites that actually host malicious software designed to compromise personal details and disrupt devices."
"By including the names of popular celebrities 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 ending up with malware ridden devices," he added.
According to McAfee, this year saw several devices getting affected by wesbites that carry celebrity names, their photos and wallpapers.
McAfee has also carried out the study to find out the most dangerous celebrities from the Telugu film industry. The list includes big stars including Pawan Kalyan, Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan and NTR among others.
Here are the list of top 10 Kollywood celebrities with highest percentage of risk online
Celebrity Names |
Infected Sites |
Trisha |
80 |
Arya |
63 |
Suriya |
62 |
Samantha |
55 |
Vijay |
50 |
Kamal Haasan |
45 |
Shruti Haasan |
42 |
Shriya Saran |
40 |
Rajinikanth |
31 |
Dhanush |
23 |