Priyanka Chopra and Kapil Sharma were the most searched online in 2015: Intel

The annual study highlights strong correlation between searches for upcoming movies and potential online Risks

Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra, replaces Alia Bhatt as Intel Security’s most sensational celebrity to search for online in 2015. Intel Security has researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest personalities on the Web in the 2015 edition of the Most Sensational Celebrities (MSC) study.

Amongst the surprise moves this year were Shraddha Kapoor’s meteoric rise to No 2 (from No 6 last year) and Kapil Sharma’s No 3 position marking the only TV personality to make the list.

Cybercriminals keep a lookout for ways to take advantage of consumer interest around popular culture events including award shows, TV show premieres, film music launches, celebrity breakups, and more. Intel Security research found this year that almost 11.47% of all links generated while evaluating the top ten celebrity names (coupled with search terms ‘Torrent’, ‘HD Download’, and ‘Free MP4’) led to malware ridden or suspicious sites.

Commenting on the study findings, Venkat Krishnapur, Head of Intel Security Group- India Engineering Centre said, “Cybercriminals capitalize on consumer interest around popular culture by luring unsuspecting consumers to risky sites to steal sensitive personal data. At Intel Security, our endeavor is to educate and empower consumers to stay safe online. For the ninth consecutive year, our initiative highlights the problem of risky websites.”

The study uses McAfee WebAdvisor, using SiteAdvisor site ratings to determine which sites are risky to search when attached to celebrity names on the Internet and calculates the overall risk percentage. Likewise, the top ten celebrities from this year’s study with the highest percentages of risk in Indian cyberspace are:

Women outnumber men in being potentially risky targets online