Searching for Screensavers Risky, Viagra is Safe
Some words make for a safer search than others.
McAfee recently released a report entitled The “Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms,” in which the security company endeavored to find out which searches put us most at risk when it comes to viruses, scams and malware.
McAfee searched for more than 2,600 popular keywords, with these words being ranked in two ways: the average risk of all results and the maximum risk of the riskiest page of results. The report revealed some interesting findings, along with some that were pretty obvious. For instance, searching for anything with ‘free’ in the title (free ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers etc) is pretty risky as is searching for music to download. If you’re already looking for something to download, you’re not making things difficult for cyber criminals.
Obvious stuff aside, McAfee reports that spikes in news coverage can also drive even consistently popular keywords out of the “most risky zone.” For example, three popular female celebrities are Angelina Jolie (8.3 percent maximum risk) Oprah Winfrey (10 percent) and Beyonce Knowles (10 percent) however a search for Gwen Stefani’s daughter, Zuma Rossdale, can be as risky as 25 percent, suggesting that malicious or unscrupulous players
pay attention to news events in order to target unsuspecting searchers.
McAfee found that the riskiest set of keyword variations was “screensavers” with a maximum risk of 59.1 percent and an average risk of 34.4 percent compared to the study averages of 10.0 percent and 1.7 percent. Surprisingly, McAfee says that searches using the keyword “Viagra” yielded the fewest risky sites. Perhaps scammers think that men shopping for viagra have enough problems without adding viruses to the mix?
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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Emusnacks A picture is worth a thousand words.Reply
Here is the list..
http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/mcafee_dangerous_search_terms.jpg
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hellwig ScreenSavers? Those are kind of old tech now days. Seriously, if you aren't using your computer, why not have the screen turn-off instead of wasting electricity showing a photo-slide or whatever screen saver you might have?Reply
With LCD flat panels all but universal these days, you don't really need to do any screen saving, and shutting the monitor on and off isn't going to wear it out like it would an old CRT.
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grieve ""Perhaps scammers think that men shopping for viagra have enough problems without adding viruses to the mix?"Reply
LOL nice! -
cracklint ReplyMcAfee says that searches using the keyword “Viagra” yielded the fewest risky sites. Perhaps scammers think that men shopping for viagra have enough problems without adding viruses to the mix?
Actually I hear that Viagra helps whether you need it or not. Not that I would know or anything. -
"Perhaps scammers think that men shopping for viagra have enough problems without adding viruses to the mix?"I think that more people are disgusted by all those viagra scams that noone actually uses the internet search engine to try to find viagra. Those who need it probably have to open their mailbox in the 'junk mail' section to find where to get it!Reply
Besides you can buy it in a local pharmacy, no need to use the bankcard over internet to dodgy sites. -
Honis Screensavers were popular with CRTs because they have a start-up and a warm-up time. The CRT usable start-up time in a cold server room could take minutes. Mine at room temps usually misses the bios if I turn it off instead of letting go into stand-by mode the night before. A full warm-up time takes between 5-10 minutes also dependent on room temps. Full warm-up time meaning the brightness and colors are as good as it gets.Reply
LCD and LED monitor warm-up times are almost equal to the start-up time and takes seconds. My 40" TV takes 5-10 seconds to pop a picture up, and the colors and brightness are as good as they get by the time I login. It just makes sense to turn LCDs off to save power (either in place of the SS or manually).
I use both an LCD and CRT monitor for my computer and use a SS because I do like the slide show of the 3 million wallpapers/pictures I have accumulated. -
The_Blood_Raven If you are looking for screensavers go here:Reply
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/downloads/date/any/?promo=disabled
Tons of great screensavers that are updated frequently and can come in a variety of different resolutions which is insanely useful, yes even 2560x1600. It is the only screensaver website I use and is virus free.