An Anti-Virus Company Calls Avril Lavigne “The Most Dangerous Celebrity Online” When It Comes to Malware

McAfee, one of the big anti-virus software companies, is worried about Canadian musicians. AScared, actually.

While observing the malware bouncing around the Internet, the company has issued a new set of rankings of “celebrities generate the riskiest search results that could potentially expose their fans to malicious websites.”

Maybe because Canadians are considered so cute, cuddly and non-threatening, virus writers used searches for Avril Lavinge, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen to lure people into places where their machines and devices could be infected. Sure. Bruno Mars and Zayn Malik are also favourites, but Canadians lead the pack. In fact, Lavigne has been named McAfee’s “Most Dangerous Celebrity” on their global rankings while Shawn Mendes is the number one sucker-clicker for Canada.

Here’s the worst search you can launch: [Celebrity Name] + free MP3.  You’re almost guaranteed to be led to sites that will bugger things up for you with malware, keystroke loggers and other miserable digital sicknesses.

Here’s a Spotify playlist of the most dangerous artists. Remember kids: there are consequences to stealing MP3s.

More here.