Show caution when searching for your favourite footballers and merchandise online, according to an IT security firm. Increasingly, cybercriminals are exploiting the names of popular sports stars and celebrities to attract people to sites that actually conceal malicious software.
Anyone looking for the latest videos or images may end up with a computer loaded with malware instead of the content they actually want, warn McAfee. The IT firm’s researchers analysed the most popular players and teams to understand which are the most hazardous on the web and have identified Cristiano Ronaldo as the most dangerous player, with France and Portugal tieing for most dangerous national team.??
Fans on the internet looking for “Cristiano Ronaldo”, “Cristiano Ronaldo and download”, “Cristiano Ronaldo and photos” or “Cristiano Ronaldo and videos” may run into online threats that could steal their personal information. Clicking on these dangerous sites to download files like photos, videos or screensavers may expose them to viruses and malware. national flags to adorn your windows are the safest items to search for online, but searching for shirts can be dangerous, exposing the searcher to malware to viruses.
And even the WAGs of the dangerous players give cause for concern with the partners of Cristiano Ronaldo (7pc) and Andriy Shevchenko (5pc) coming first and second respectively in the danger stakes.
