Last year's winner Emma Watson has dropped out of the list

Sep 17, 2013 07:27 GMT  ·  By

IT security firm McAfee has released its 2013 “Most Dangerous Celebrities” study. This year, Harry Potter star Emma Watson has been replaced by American actress Lily Collins, known for movies like Mirror Mirror, Abduction, and The Blind Side.

McAfee has found that there’s a 14.5% chance that users who search for Lily Collins-related content will end up on a website that hosts malware, viruses, phishing, spyware, adware or spam.

The online searches that lead to malicious sites include “Lily Collins and free downloads,” “Lily Collins and fakes” and “Lily Collins and free app downloads.” Searching for raunchy pictures of the celebrity might also land users on shady websites.

In this year’s top 10, Collins is followed by Avril Lavigne (with a 12.7% chance of being taken to malicious websites), Sandra Bullock (10.8%), Kathy Griffin (10.6%), Zoe Saldana (10.5%), Katy Perry (10.4%), Britney Spears (10.1%), Jon Hamm (10.0%), Adriana Lima (9.9%) and Emma Roberts (9.8%).

It’s worth noting that Jon Hamm is the only male celebrity present in this year’s top 10. In the top 20, Justin Timberlake is present on the 12th position and Patrick Dempsey is present on the 13th spot.

The top includes Hollywood actors, comedians, musicians and Web personalities. Of these categories, musicians are said to be the most risky. Of the top 50 most risky celebrities, 17 are musicians.

The McAfee study also shows that the list of dangerous celebrities changes from one year to another. Last year, Emma Watson, Jessica Biel and Megan Fox ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6. In 2013, they’ve all dropped out of the list.

“Today’s consumers often are completely unaware of security risks when searching for celebrity and entertainment news, images and videos online, sacrificing safety for immediacy,” commented Paula Greve, director of web security research at McAfee.

“Cybercriminals prey on consumers’ addiction to breaking news and leverage this behavior to lead them to unsafe sites that can severely infect their computers and devices and steal personal data.”