Posted in: Comics | Tagged: aquaman, comic con, sdcc

McAfee Jump On Comic Con Bandwagon To Point Out The Dangers Of People Jumping On The Comic Con Bandwagon

Published Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:48:54 -0500

Last updated Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:40:27 -0500

So this year McAfee have led the field spectacularly in a pandering-to-Comic Con-PR article in which they reveal that that searching for Aquaman can lead people to risky sites, where hackers are just waiting to pounce unless you have McAfee software installed, and pay for the privilege.

Like this;

With the resurgence of the superheroes into mainstream movies (think Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America to name a few), hackers are leveraging their popularity to target consumers. Hackers are most successful when they can attract a large number of victims. One way to target big crowds online is to track current events—everything from celebrity meltdowns and natural disasters to holidays and popular music—and now, superheroes.

McAfee reveals the top Most Toxic Superheroes (#toxicsuperhero) that result in the greatest number of risky websites when you search for them online. The research found that searching for the latest "Aquaman and free torrent download," "Aquaman and watch," "Aquaman and online," and "Aquaman and free trailer" yields a 18.6% chance of landing on a website that has tested positive for online threats, such as spyware, adware, spam, phishing, viruses and other malware.

The study uses McAfee^® SiteAdvisor^® site ratings, which indicate which sites are risky to search for celebrity names on the Web and calculate an overall risk percentage. The top Superheroes from the research with the highest percentage of risk are:

Aquaman 18.60%
Mr. Fantastic 18.22%
The Hulk 17.30%
Wonder Woman 16.77%
Daredevil 16.70%
Iron Man 15.63%
Superman 15.21%
Thor 15.10%
Green Lantern 15.00%
Cyclops 14.40%
Wolverine 14.27%
Invisible Woman 12.40%
Batman 12.30%
Captain America 11.77%
Spider-Man 11.15%

They then give tips on safe searching, that includes using McAfee products naturally.

But instead, I'm going to run another McAfee tip.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg[/youtube]

They conclude saying;

Broadly speaking, this study confirms that scammers consider popular trends when deciding which victims to target. This makes common sense. If hackers are motivated largely by profit, the biggest profits can be wrung from the largest pools of potential victims. And on the web, popular trends and visitor traffic are highly correlated—so be smart and don't fall into their trap.

Which is just how you could describe PR companies jumping on Comic Con without any actual relevance…

Discuss on #toxicsuperhero

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