Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Web
  3. News

Emma Watson: The Web’s most dangerous celebrity search

By

Emma Watson most dangerous celebrity search
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Harry Potter star Emma Watson is the most dangerous woman on the Internet. Or, at least, her name is the most dangerous celebrity search term, according to cybersecurity company McAfee’s 2012 “Most Dangerous Celebrities” study. Watson knocks out former Victoria Secret’s model Heidi Klum as the Web’s riskiest celebrity search.

Recommended Videos

So how dangerous is it to search for “Emma Watson?” It’s like playing Russian roulette. Searchers have a one-in-eight chance (12.6 percent) of opening up a malicious site containing spyware, malware, spam, adware, viruses and phishing sites, says McAfee. But in particular, McAfee identifies “Emma Watson and free downloads,” “Emma Watson and nude pictures,” “Emma Watson and fakes,” and “Emma Watson and busted,” as the most dangerous Emma Watson-related phrases to search for. Many of the websites associated with those phrases have been designed specifically for stealing your personal information.

 “Cybercriminals follow the latest trends, often using the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software that are designed to steal passwords and personal information,” McAfee wrote.

Since her participation in the Harry Potter series, which ended with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011, Emma Watson hasn’t quite had a standout role. In 2011, her non-Harry Potter related gig was a supporting role as a wardrobe assistant who had a fling with the main actor, and she starred in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, set to debut on September 21. So why is Emma Watson so popular?

We have a feeling Reddit has something to do with it. Emma Watson has had quite the cult following thanks to Reddit and the /r/EmmaWatson subreddit, where Redditors will post elegant photographs highlighting the actress’s beauty. There’s a fascination with her as posts related to the actress often turns up on the front page of Reddit. And, as you may know already, much of the content that ends up on Reddit’s heavily visited front page often makes its way throughout the Web.

McAfee found that “Headline” (news-making) celebrities doesn’t necessarily become lures for spammers and scammers. And the list of “most dangerous” celebs clearly reflects that.

The list of the top ten most dangerous celebrities to search for includes the following:

  1. Emma Watson
  2. Jessica Biel
  3. Eva Mendes
  4. Selena Gomez
  5. Halle Berry
  6. Megan Fox
  7. Shakira
  8. Cameron Diaz
  9. Salma Hayek
  10. Sofia Vergara

Some trends that McAfee recognized were that Latina celebrities — and more generally, women — were the most likely search terms to be linked to dangerous result. In fact, only one guy made the top 20 most dangerous celebrity search terms: Jimmy Kimmel. Go figure.

Image via Featureflash/Shutterstock

Francis Bea
Francis Bea
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Francis got his first taste of the tech industry in a failed attempt at a startup during his time as a student at the…
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more
Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs
A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.

Read more