And his female counterpart Kate Winslet, thanks to a debilitating virus
...u00a0And his female counterpart Kate Winslet, thanks to a debilitating virus
Checking this year's Oscar nominees can be seriously damaging to your computer, with cyber criminals loading online searches like actors Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet and Slumdog Millionaire, with malware,
viruses, spyware and other nasty surprises.
The regional director of McAfee Inc, Kartik Shahani, said, "Surfers have to be very careful when they search for something that is currently top-of-the-mind like the Olympics because a lot of damaging stuff is lurking online, waiting to strike."
McAfee has noted that the technique employed in the Oscar searches was the same as that used in US President Barack Obama's election and the Beijing Olympics.u00a0 Security expert Ajitkumar Dhanraj Hatti believes that Oscar season is no exception. "What can you do? Of course, you'll keep on searching.
What's the fun of the Internet if you can't look up stuff?" Hatti asked. Internet security companies like McAfee and Symantec Security have designed techniques to counter such activity.
"Cyber criminals simply use your curiosity against you, by setting up websites offering gossip and information about recently-hyped movies and their stars. They use the sites to distribute spam, malware, viruses and spyware," said Shahani. Russia, Korea, China and US are the most popular locations generating viruses.u00a0u00a0 
Rohit Srivastwa, founder, ClubHack, observed that anytime there was an international event and netizens would scurry to the web to learn more about a particular person, it represented an opportunity for those who want to harm us.
Recent research undertaken done by McAfee revealed that searches for actress Kate Winslet who was nominated for her role in The Reader presents the greatest danger to Internet users and their computers.
What you can do about cyber attacks
Use a pseudo name; do not share your date of birth because 80% of Internet users use a combination of their names and date of birth as a means to launch a strike.
Don't search for them
Here are the most dangerous searches by category along with the percentage of bad sites.
Most dangerous actor: Brad Pitt (18.13%)
Most dangerous actress: Kate Winsletu00a0 (20.6%)
Most dangerous supporting actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman (12.4%)
Most dangerous supporting actress: Penelope Cruz (17.2%)
Most dangerous film: Frost/Nixon (7.8%)
How they operate
Sites ask Internet users to register to receive the latest Oscar updates. Details sought for registration include
e-mail account and date of birth, which are used by cyber criminals to launch attacks. Another popular mode is to offer a movie or picture download facility, which is laced with viruses.
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