Hackers love Ryan Gosling. In actual fact, hackers use his identify as bait greater than every other movie star.
With that, the celebrated star of “Barbie” and umpteen different hit movies tops our Hacker Celeb Scorching Checklist for 2023. It’s our annual research that reveals which big-name movie star searches most frequently hyperlink to malware and dangerous websites. And this yr, we’ve advanced the checklist. It now consists of celebs noticed in deepfake and different AI-driven content material.
With Gosling’s excessive profile this yr, it comes as little shock that he ranked so extremely. As we reported earlier this yr, “Barbie” was an enormous hit for cybercriminals as nicely. They baited shoppers with a rash of ticket scams, obtain scams, and different assaults that capitalized on the summer time hit’s hype.
Who made the Hacker Celeb Scorching Checklist?
Months later, searches for Gosling stay excessive. His portrayal of Ken has scored him a first-ever Billboard Scorching 100 tune with “I’m Simply Ken.” In the meantime, Ken and Barbie outfits rank among the many hottest Halloween costumes for 2023.
And should you’re questioning, Margot Robbie, who starred as Barbie to Gosling’s Ken, ranked quantity eight on our checklist. The total prime ten breaks down as follows:
- Ryan Gosling, Golden Globe winner and a number of Academy Award nominee.
- Emily Blunt, critically acclaimed actor and star of this summer time’s hit movie, Oppenheimer.
- Jennifer Lopez, popular culture icon, critically acclaimed singer, actor, and producer.
- Zendaya, critically acclaimed actor and singer.
- Kevin Costner, Academy Award-winning actor and director, and present star of the hit sequence, Yellowstone.
- Elon Musk, enterprise magnate and tech entrepreneur.
- Al Roker, the “At the moment” present’s in style meteorologist, creator, and journalist.
- Margot Robbie, actor, producer, and a number of Academy Award and BAFTA award nominee, and the star of this summer time’s hit movie, Barbie.
- Dangerous Bunny, multi-platinum album singer, and the primary non-English-language singer to be named as Spotify’s most streamed artist of the yr.
- America Ferrera, actor and famous supporting star of this summer time’s hit movie, Barbie.
What’s in danger once you seek for these celebrities.
The hackers behind these celebrity-driven assaults are after two major issues.
- They need you at hand over private data to allow them to use it to commit id fraud and theft.
- They need to infect your machine with malware. Which may embody spy ware that may steal private data or ransomware that holds your machine and its recordsdata hostage—for a worth.
Accordingly, they’ll pair movie star names with phrases like audio ebook, lyrics, deepfake, free ringtone, free film, free obtain, MP4, amongst others—which generate outcomes that result in sketchy websites.
In all, they aim individuals who need to obtain one thing or come up with celebrity-related content material in some kind. Once more, consider the “Barbie” film scams earlier this yr that promoted free downloads of the film — however after all they have been malware and id theft scams.
Looking for a celeb identify alone didn’t essentially result in an inventory of sketchy outcomes. Our personal Chief Expertise Officer, Steve Grobman, described the dangers nicely. “We all know persons are searching for out free content material, resembling film downloads, which places them in danger. If it sounds too good to be true, it typically is and deserves a better look.” But hackers know the way hungry persons are for movie star content material, and sadly some folks will go forward and click on these hyperlinks that promise celebrity-filled content material, regardless of the dangers.
Who else made the Hacker Celeb Scorching Checklist?
Additional rounding out the checklist, we discovered a number of large names from sports activities and in style tradition.
Argentine soccer participant Lionel Messi is available in at quantity 18 on the checklist, who lately made the transfer to Miami’s Main League Soccer staff. Current retiree and all-time American soccer nice Tom Brady clocked in at quantity 19, and Travis Kelce, American soccer tight finish for the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, came in at quantity 22. NBA star Steph Curry at quantity 23, while Aaron Rogers, one other American soccer legend, got here in at quantity 31. And Serena Williams, a dominant pressure on the court docket and in tradition, ranked at quantity 32.
Actuality and popular culture favorites additionally made the highest 50, with Andy Cohen of “Actual Housewives” fame taking the quantity 11 slot, adopted by Kim Kardashian at quantity 24, and Tom Sandoval at quantity 40 on the checklist.
And for the Swifties on the market, Taylor Swift ranked 25 on our checklist this yr.
Additionally making the checklist — AI scams.
Because of available AI instruments, cybercriminals have elevated each the sophistication and quantity of their assaults. It’s no totally different for these celebrity-based assaults.
Based on McAfee researchers, one such AI-driven development is on the rise: deepfakes. For instance, Elon Musk. He hit quantity six on our checklist, and our researchers discovered a major quantity of malicious deepfake content material tied to his identify — typically linked with cryptocurrency scams.
Taking a pattern set of the highest 50 checklist, McAfee researchers found between 25 to 135 deepfake URLs per movie star search. Whereas there are cases of malicious deepfakes, many movie star deepfakes fall into leisure or false promoting use circumstances proper now. Nevertheless, there’s rising proof that future deepfakes may flip misleading — intentionally passing alongside disinformation in a public determine’s identify.
Staying secure whereas looking for celebs — and generally.
You’ve gotten each motive, and each proper, to seek for and revel in your movie star content material safely. A mixture of a pointy eye and on-line safety can hold you secure on the market.
- Go together with shops and web sites you’ll be able to belief. When it comes time to get your movie star information, search for names you already know. Dependable sources which have been round. The truth is that it’s not robust for hackers and scammers to rapidly spin up their very own (fully bogus) “movie star information” websites. In actual fact, it’s somewhat straightforward, thanks partly to AI that may generate phony articles that in any other case look actual.
- Persist with professional streaming and obtain companies. Whether or not you need to spin one thing from Taylor Swift’s newest album (Taylor’s model, after all) or stream films out of your favourite stars, use recognized and legit companies. Sure, typically meaning paying. Or placing up with just a few adverts. The unlawful alternate options is perhaps riddled with malware or ask for private data that finally ends up proper within the palms of hackers.
- Don’t “log in” or present different data. In case you obtain a message, textual content, or e mail, or go to a third-party web site that asks for information like your bank card, e mail, house handle, or different login data, don’t give it out. Significantly if there’s a promise for “unique” content material. Such requests are a typical tactic for phishing that might result in id theft.
- Inform what’s actual and what’s pretend with on-line safety software program. Complete on-line safety software program can hold movie star scams and different scams like them at bay. First, our new McAfee Rip-off Safety makes use of sensible AI to detect and warn you of rip-off texts and hyperlinks despatched your means, so you’ll be able to inform what’s actual and what’s pretend. Second, internet safety appears to be like out for you whilst you search—figuring out malicious hyperlinks and even blocking them should you nonetheless click on one accidentally. Collectively, that is a part of the complete machine, id, and privateness safety you get with us.
Whether or not it’s Ryan, J-Lo, or Dangerous Bunny – you’ll be able to keep secure once you search.
Hackers and scammers love using the coattails of celebrities. By hijacking large names like Ryan, J-Lo, and Dangerous Bunny, they dupe loads of well-meaning followers into downloading malware or handing over their private data.
In fact, that’s no motive to cease looking for these celebs. By no means. Go forward and revel in your exhibits, music, and films—and all of the information, gossip, and tea surrounding them. That’s all a part of the enjoyable. Simply do it with a pointy eye and the right safety that has your again.
