Mahesh Babu 'Most Dangerous' Celebrity of Tollywood

Hyderabad, September 2013: Actor Mahesh Babu, listed as the 2nd most desirable man in India has been named the Most Dangerous Celebrity of Telugu cinema in Indian cyberspace according to a study unveiled by McAfee, the world's largest dedicated security technology company.

McAfee researched popular culture's most famous people to create a ranking of Most Dangerous Celebrity based on the risk quotient of Telugu celebrities in Indian cyberspace.

McAfee researched popular culture's most famous people to reveal riskiest celebrity sportsmen, actors and politicians across the web and unveil the 2013 rendition of 'Most Dangerous Celebrity' research. The study highlights the trend of cyber criminals using celebs to take advantage of fans seeking more information about their idols.

Cyber criminals often lure unsuspecting supporters to sites laden with malware that can steal passwords and personal information. These criminals capitalize on the public's fascination with celebrity to lure them to sites laden with malware that enables them to steal passwords and personal information.

This year, searching for a celebrity name coupled with the search terms 'wall paper', 'videos', 'nude pictures' resulted in the highest instances of malware-laden sites.

Commenting on the findings of the study, Venkata Subrahmanyam Krishnapur, Vice-President of Engineering- Consumer and Mobile, Business Group, McAfee India Centre said, 'In India where celebrities are given the status of demi gods, cyber criminals often use their names to lure people to sites that actually host malicious software designed to compromise personal details and disrupt devices.

By including the names of popular celebrities in a website's search tags, cyber criminals are able to direct more visitors to malicious sites where they may unwittingly sign up for spam or harmful spyware ending up with a malware ridden devices.'

The study uses McAfee' SiteAdvisor' site ratings, which indicate which sites are risky to search when attached to celebrity names on the Web and calculate an overall risk percentage. The top 10 Telugu celebrities from this year's Indian study with the highest percentages of risk in the Indian cyberspace are:

Rank and Celebrity

1. Superstar Mahesh Babu who's much awaited film One-Nenokkadine has taken the internet by storm with the movie trailer garnering more than 2 lakh viewers. That makes him the 'Most Dangerous Celebrity' with 43 infected sites online to his name.

2. Making his recent debut in Bollywood along with Priyanka Chopra in the movie Zanjeer, Ram Charan ranks 2nd in the ranking with 42 infected sites online

3. At 3rd position is the Gabbar Singh of Telugu film industry, Pawan Kalyan. Having 40 infected websites online, the craze for the superstar will be transformed into a Telugu movie titled "Pawanism", which will pay tribute to the actor, his popularity and his real life philosophies.

4. At 4th position with 39 infected sites is Anjali, with her role in the critically acclaimed multi-starrer film- Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu.

5. With 36 infected sites online, at 5th position is Ileana D'cruz who will appear in the lead role with 'Phata Poster Nikla Hero' alongside Shahid Kapoor.

6. At 6th position is Nandamuri Taraka Ram, popularly known as Jr.NTR, an actor and politician with 35 infected websites to his name.

7. Known as a style icon, Allu Arjun who will be seen with Shruti Hassan in his next film, Race Gurramstands at 7th position with 34 infected sites.

8. At 8th position is Amala Paul who was critically acclaimed for her title role in Mynaa with 32 infected sites online.

9 Kriti Sanon, an accomplished Kathak dancer who is all set to make her debut opposite Superstar Mahesh Babu in the highly anticipated movie One 'Nenokkadine stands at 9th position with 30 infected sites.

10. Kajal Aggarwal whose movie Baadshah opposite Jr. NTR was a blockbuster in 2013 ranks 10th as Most Dangerous Celebrity online with 29 infected online sites.

Tips to Stay Protected:

Beware of content that prompts you to download anything before providing you the content. You may want to opt to watch streaming videos or download content from official websites of content providers.

'Free downloads' are significantly the highest virus-prone search term. Anyone searching for videos or files to download should be careful as not to unleash malware on their computer.

Always use password protection on your phone and other mobile devices. If your phone is lost or stolen, anyone who picks up the device could publish your information online.

Established news sites may not entice you with exclusives for one solid reason: there usually aren't any. Try to stick to official news sites that you trust for breaking news. However, trusted sites can also fall prey to hackers. Make sure to use a safe search tool that will notify you of risky sites or links before you visit them.

Don't download videos from suspect sites. This should be common sense, but it bears repeating: don't download anything from a website you don't trust ' especially video. Most news clips you'd want to see can easily be found on official video sites, and don't require you to download anything. If a website offers an exclusive video for you to download, don't.

Don't 'log in' or provide other information: If you receive a message, text or email or visit a third-party website that asks for your information'credit card, email, home address, Facebook login, or other information'for access to an exclusive story, don't give it out. Such requests are a common tactic for phishing that could lead to identity theft.

If you do decide to search for information on a major event or celebrity in the news, make sure your PC is secure with software such as McAfee Total Protection, which provides complete protection for your online life.

A complimentary version of Site Advisor software can be downloaded at www.siteadvisor.com.