Emma Watson Takes Out the Title of Most Dangerous Cyber Celebrity Online

SYDNEY, Australia, Sept. 11, 2012 – Dannii Minogue is McAfee’s 2012 Most Dangerous Celebrity to search for online in Australia (using ‘.com.au’ search engines). The McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities^TM study found Australia’s Isla Fisher and Elle Macpherson to be two of the most dangerous celebrities to search for in cyberspace, ranking 11th and 16th respectively (using ‘.com’ search engines). For the sixth year in a row, McAfee researched popular culture’s most famous people to reveal the riskiest actors, athletes, musicians, politicians, designers and comedians on the web.

Cybercriminals follow the latest trends, often using the names of popular celebrities to lure people to sites that are actually laden with malicious software designed to steal passwords and personal information. If you’re not careful when you’re searching for the latest videos or files to download, you could end up with a malware-ridden computer along with the trendy content. This year, searching for a celebrity name with “free downloads” and “nude pictures” as part of the search term resulted in the highest result of risky sites.

Dannii Minogue has bumped Nicole Kidman, last year’s riskiest Australian celebrity, down to second place in the Australian results. Fans searching for “Dannii Minogue and free downloads,” “Dannii Minogue and nude pictures,” “Dannii Minogue and fakes,” and “Dannii Minogue and busted” are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information. Almost one in 11 resulting sites were identified by McAfee® SiteAdvisor® as risky. Clicking on these risky sites and downloading files like pictures and videos exposes surfers or consumers to the risk of downloading viruses and malware.

Interestingly, Elle Macpherson has proven more dangerous to international users than to her fellow Australians. Making it to 16th on the global list, around one in 13 ‘.com’ search results associated with Elle were identified as risky, while only around one in 22 ‘.com.au’ search results were the same. Isla Fisher also received a lower risk rating in Australian than she did globally.

“Cyber criminals often disguise security threats in what appears to be a harmless website and use celebrity names and free downloads to lure users to their site,” said Melanie Cole, Consumer Marketing Programs Director, McAfee Asia Pacific. “Australians, just like users around the world, are at risk of coming across malicious websites when searching for such celebrity content. So to keep safe it’s important to think before you click or use our McAfee SiteAdvisor® free tool. ”

Most Dangerous Celebrities Online (‘.com’ search results)

Emma Watson has replaced Heidi Klum as McAfee’s 2012 most dangerous celebrity to search for online. The McAfee Most Dangerous Celebrities^TM study found that women are more dangerous than men with Jessica Biel taking the number two spot and Eva Mendes coming in third. Funnyman Jimmy Kimmel is the only male to make the top 20 list this year.

McAfee research found that searching for the latest Emma Watson pictures and downloads yields more than a 12.6% chance of landing on a website that has tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

“The searches for Emma Watson identified one risky website in around every eight results,” said Cole. “These numbers show just how common it is for users to come across sites that pose a real security threat. If users are educated about the risks and use technology to help identify them, they are much less likely to click on a malicious link or download and infect their PC.”

The study uses McAfee® SiteAdvisor® site ratings, which indicates which sites are risky, to search for celebrity names on the Web and calculate an overall risk percentage.  The top 10 celebrities from this year’s study with the highest percentages of risk are:

Paula Greve, director of web research at McAfee, said, “In today’s celebrity culture, consumers expect to be able to go online to catch up with the latest photos, videos, tweets, and stories about their favourite celebrities. Due to the richness of the data and the high interaction, often times consumers forget the risks that they are taking by clicking on the links.

As the sophistication and expectations of consumers with respect to their online experience has increased, so has the level and ability to deliver malware either by malvertising, exploiting the user’s browser without their awareness, or masking malicious URLs behind shortened URLs.”

Beware of the Supermodel

Three supermodels have made the top 20 list this year. Searching for downloads of Elle Macpherson (No. 16), Bar Refaeli (No. 17), and Kate Upton (No. 20) can result in landing on a risky site.

Headlines Don’t Equate to Risk

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Kristen Stewart, and Robert Pattinson were all absent from this year’s top 50 list despite the publicity surrounding the Cruise-Holmes divorce and the Stewart-Pattinson cheating scandal.

“Hot movies and TV shows, awards and industry accolades seem to be more of a factor than headline-grabbing activity,” said Greve. “Still, searching for any celebrity can bring up risky sites and the public should use caution by not clicking on any page that looks suspicious.”

From One Year to Another

Heidi Klum, Piers Morgan, Mila Kunis, Katherine Heigl, Anna Paquin, Adriana Lima Scarlett Johansson, Brad Pitt, Emma Stone, and Rachel McAdams have all dropped out of this year’s top 10 list (Pitt, Stone, and McAdams tied for No. 10 last year).

Tips to Stay Protected:

• Beware of content that prompts you to download anything      before providing you with content. You may want to opt to watch streaming      videos or download content from an established site, such as ABC’s iView      or Netflix.
• Free downloads are significantly the highest      virus-prone search terms. Anyone searching for videos or files to download      should be careful as not to unleash malware on their computer.
• Since most people use a variety of devices to search      for celebrities, be sure you have up to date, comprehensive security for      all of your devices. It’s important to have protection, such as McAfee®      All Access, on all Internet-enabled devices, including PCs, Macs,      smartphones, tablets and netbooks.
• A complimentary version of SiteAdvisor software can be      downloaded at www.siteadvisor.com.

For More Information: 

• To download a graphic of McAfee’s Most Dangerous      Celebrities online, click here

• To learn more about the research and the risks of      searching for celebrities, go to
  o Web page – www.mcafee.com/most-dangerous-celebrities
  o Blog – https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/family-safety/dangerous-celebrity-2012
  o Blog – https://blogs.mcafee.com/consumer/identity-theft/celebrities-are-lures
• To continue the conversation, follow @McAfee      on Twitter and tweet your thoughts with the hashtag #riskyceleb.
• Web surfers should visit the McAfee      Security Advice Center and Facebook page at www.facebook.com/mcafee      for information on the latest threats, and tips on surfing safely.

About McAfee SiteAdvisor technology
McAfee SiteAdvisor technology protects users from malicious websites and browser exploits. SiteAdvisor technology tests and rates nearly every trafficked site on the Internet and uses red, yellow and green icons to indicate the website’s risk level.

SiteAdvisor site ratings are created by using patented advanced technology to conduct automated website tests SiteAdvisor software works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

About McAfee
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is the world’s largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivaled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com

Note: McAfee, the McAfee logo, SiteAdvisor and McAfee Total Protection are registered trademarks or trademarks of McAfee, Inc., or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. ©2011 McAfee, Inc. All rights reserved.

New Releases Make Windows 8 Safer and Faster While Setting New Benchmarks for Protection and Performance 

SYDNEY, Aust. – Sept. 11, 2012 – Norton by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) has released the latest versions of its award-winning core security products, Norton 360, Norton Internet Security, and Norton AntiVirus, delivering on Norton’s commitment to extend protection to consumers on all of their devices and in all they do online.  With five patented layers of protection, stronger social networking defenses, anti-scam capabilities, and improved cloud-enabled features, the latest Norton products set new benchmarks for protection and performance.  In addition, the latest releases are Windows® 8 compatible and engineered to make Windows 8 safer and faster compared with running Windows Defender on Windows 8.

According to third-party testing, when paired with Norton, Windows 8 is 50 percent faster[1] and 20 percent safer than with Windows Defender[2].  In addition, testing showed that Norton was able to correctly detect and block all the threats that Windows Defender failed to recognise.[3]

“According to this year’s Norton Cybercrime Report[4], one in 10 social network users said they’d fallen victim to a scam or fake link on social network platforms.  Today, consumers are living nearly every aspect of their lives online and often putting personal information at risk,” said Janice Chaffin, Group President, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec.  “With our latest releases, Norton responds to this and other consumer vulnerabilities with stronger social media and scam protection to ensure consumers are safe in the multi-device, Wi-Fi-enabled world.”

The latest Norton products are engineered to be safer, optimized for speed and performance, and simpler to use.  In third-party testing, the new products ranked first in both protection[5] and performance[6] among a field of competitors.  New features and improvements include: 

Safer

In addition to industry-leading core security technologies, the new Norton releases feature protection enhancements including:

–        Social Networking Protection – New defenses protect consumers from attacks and scams on social networks, such as likejacking, malicious messages, posts and notices on social networks

–        Scam Insight – Anti-scam capabilities warn users of potentially risky sites that are new or do not have an established reputation within the Norton user community, enabling users to keep personal information such as bank account or login data secure

–        Enhanced Network Defenses – To keep consumers safe from constantly evolving web-based attacks, the latest releases feature stronger networking defenses including a new Intelligent Firewall and broader uses of Insight information, which now tracks IP address reputation in addition to file, URL and domain reputation

Faster

With consumers becoming more on-the-go with devices such as tablets and ultrabooks, faster startup, shutdown and improved battery power are increasingly important.  The latest Norton products feature:

–        Faster Startup & Shutdown – Completely re-engineered to minimise startup and shutdown time

–        Maximized Battery Power – Reduced power consumption, resulting in extended battery life and faster response from system sleep and hibernate states

–        More Efficient Support for Digital Media Files –  Designed to ensure digital media files – such as photos, music and videos – are safe from attack, without impacting performance

Simpler
In addition to being safer and faster, Norton products are also simpler to use, offering enhancements including:

–        Touch Screen-Friendly – User interface is engineered for faster performance and optimized for touch screens

–        Version-Less – With all product updates now downloaded in the background and installed automatically, consumers can rest assured they are safe from the latest threats without manually checking for updates

–        Reboot-Less – Product updates no longer require reboot, so consumers can receive the most up-to-date protection without being interrupted

Pricing & Availability

The latest versions of Norton 360, Norton Internet Security and Norton AntiVirus are now available for purchase in Australia through various retailers and the Norton online store at http://buy.norton.com/. The MSRP for Norton 360 Multi-Device (previously Norton 360 Everywhere) is $129.95, which provides one year of protection for up to five devices.  The MSRP for Norton Internet Security is $99.95, which provides one year of protection for up to three PCs.  The MSRP for Norton AntiVirus is $59.95, which provides one year of protection for one PC.

Norton customers with a valid product subscription are eligible to receive the latest product updates via the subscription service model.  For more information, visit the Norton Update center at http://updatecenter.norton.com.

About Norton

Norton protects the Stuff that matters to consumers, across all aspects of their digital lives. Norton provides a range of security solutions including technologies for PCs and mobile devices, live tech support services and online backup. For free antivirus and other free tools to keep you safe from malware, phishing and identity theft go to http://au.norton.com/.  Like Norton on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/norton. 

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security; storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world.  Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

AV-Comparatives testing on more than 18,000 malicious apps places Bitdefender Mobile Security in top category 

SYDNEY & AUCKLAND – August 13, 2012 – Bitdefender Mobile Security is at the top of its industry in both preventing malware infections in Android smart phones and in minimising impact on the phone’s batteries, according to testing by independent analysis firm AV-Comparatives.

“When we started designing Bitdefender Mobile Security, we set out to craft the perfect smartphone security suite – one that catches pretty much all the threats that could possibly be thrown at the Android OS, while carefully managing the phone’s battery and offering a host of other functions,” said Bitdefender Senior Product Manager Alexandru Balan.  “The AV-Comparatives test is confirmation that we succeeded.”

During extensive testing on 13 leading Android security software products, AV-Comparatives found that Bitdefender Mobile Security, the flagship Android solution by award-winning antivirus designer Bitdefender, placed in the top category for malware prevention. BMS caught between 98 per cent and 100 per cent of all Android malware in more than 18,000 malicious apps.

Also, Bitdefender Mobile Security proved to be the solution best detecting a large number of adware families. This is an important feature for an AV software as some apps containing adware annoy users with messages that make it difficult for them to know which  app is responsible for showing the add. Finally, the software gave off zero false positives during testing.

In AV-Comparatives’ review of various features of Bitdefender Mobile Security, the independent organisation pointed out its “very intuitively designed web interface” with the ability to control multiple devices, the range of available SMS commands, and the protection of its anti-theft features.

“Bitdefender has had a long history of solid antivirus products for computers and we’re happy to see the company has translated that experience to the mobile world,” said Andreas Clementi of AV- Comparatives. “The company is proving to be consistent across the product range that we are testing.”

Cost per Victim Goes Down; Social and Mobile Incidents on the Rise 

Sydney, Australia – Sept. 6, 2012: Norton by Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) today released the findings of its annual Norton Cybercrime Report, one of the world’s largest consumer cybercrime studies. The study is aimed at understanding how cybercrime affects consumers, and how the adoption and evolution of new technologies impacts people’s security. With findings based on self-reported experiences of more than 13,000 adults across 24 countries, the 2012 edition of the Norton Cybercrime Report calculates the direct costs¹ associated with global consumer cybercrime at US $110bn² over the past twelve months. In Australia, it is estimated that more than 5.4 million people fell victim to cybercrime in the past twelve months, suffering AUD1.65bn in direct financial losses.

Every second, 18 adults become a victim of cybercrime³, resulting in more than one-and-a-half million cybercrime victims each day on a global level – with losses totaling an average of US $197 per victim across the world in direct financial costs⁴. In the past twelve months, an estimated 556 million⁵ adults across the world experienced cybercrime, more than the entire population of the European Union⁶. This figure represents 46% (43% in Australia) of online adults who have been victims of cybercrime in the past twelve months, on par with the findings from 2011 (45%).

Changing Face of Cybercrime

This year’s survey shows an increase in “new” forms of cybercrime compared to last year, such as those found on social networks or mobile devices⁷ – a sign that cybercriminals are starting to focus their efforts on these increasingly popular platforms. Globally, one in five online adults (21%) has been a victim of either social or mobile cybercrime, and 37% of Australian social network users have been victims of cybercrime, specifically:

• 12% of Australian social network users reported someone had hacked into their profile and pretended to be them.
• 1 in 10 Australian social network users said they’d fallen victim to a scam or fake link on social network platforms.
• While 80% believe that cybercriminals are setting their sights on social networks, less than half (49%) actually use a security solution which protects them from social network threats and only 55% use the privacy settings to control what information they share, and with whom.
• More than 1 in 5 (22%) Australian mobile users received a text message from someone they didn’t know requesting that they click on an embedded link or dial an unknown number to retrieve a “voicemail”.

“Cybercriminals are changing their tactics to target fast growing mobile platforms and social networks where consumers are less aware of security risks,” says Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate. “This mirrors what we saw in this year’s Symantec Internet Security Threat Report⁸ which reported nearly twice the mobile vulnerabilities in 2011from the year before.”

The 2012 Norton Cybercrime Report also reveals that globally, most Internet users take the basic steps to protect themselves and their personal information – such as deleting suspicious emails and being careful with their personal details online. However, other core precautions are being ignored: 40% don’t use complex passwords or change their passwords frequently and more than a third do not check for the padlock symbol in the browser before entering sensitive personal information, such as banking details, online.

In addition, this year’s report also indicates that globally, many online adults are unaware as to how some of the most common forms of cybercrime have evolved over the years and thus have a difficult time recognising how malware, such as viruses, act on their computer. In fact, 40% of adults do not know that malware can operate in a discreet fashion, making it hard to know if a computer has been compromised, and more than half (55%) are not certain that their computer is currently clean and free of viruses.

“Malware and viruses used to wreak obvious havoc on your computer,” Merritt continues. “You’d get a blue screen, or your computer would crash, alerting you to an infection. But cybercriminals’ methods have evolved; they want to avoid detection as long as possible. This year’s results show that nearly half of Internet users believe that unless their computer crashes or malfunctions, they’re not 100% sure they’ve fallen victim to such an attack.” 

Strong Email Passwords Still Key

More than a quarter (27%) of online adults report having been notified to change their password for a compromised email account. With people sending, receiving, and storing everything from personal photos (50%) to work-related correspondence and documents (42%) to bank statements (22%) and passwords for other online accounts (17%), those email accounts can be a potential gateway for criminals looking for personal and corporate information. 

“Personal email accounts often contain the keys to your online kingdom. Not only can criminals gain access to everything in your inbox, they can also reset your passwords for any other online site you may use by clicking the ‘forgot your password’ link, intercepting those emails and effectively locking you out of your own accounts,” says Adam Palmer, Norton Lead Cybersecurity Advisor.  “Protect your email accordingly by using complex passwords and changing them regularly.” 

For more findings from the Norton Cybercrime Report globally and by country, please visit: http://www.norton.com/2012cybercrimereport