One of the most dangerous things you can do online is also the thing everyone does pretty much all the time.  Your searching habits can put you in danger, especially if you search for things involving celebrities and screen-savers, celebrities and pictures, or celebrities and downloads.  Because so many of us search for things online without thinking about the ramifications of clicking on those links, virus makers, hijackers, hackers, and scammers love to sneak their malware behind celebrity names, and Cameron Diaz is the most dangerous celebrity to search for online.

That’s right, despite not having a hit movie since Charlie’s Angels 2, Ms. Diaz tops McAfee’s most dangerous celebrity search list, beating out A-listers like Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, sex symbols like Jessica Biel, and TV mega-star Anna Paquin.  A search for Cameron Diaz has a ten percent chance of directing your computer towards some sort of malware-plagued website!  Eesh!

It’s just a sign of the growing sophistication of those that want to steal your information, says McAfee security researcher Dave Marcus.  While ”consumers are getting smarter about searching online … cybercriminals are getting sneakier in their techniques,” he said, adding:  ”Now they’re hiding malicious content in ‘tiny’ places like shortened URLs that can spread virally in social networking sites and Twitter, instead of on websites and downloads.”

As always, be careful what you click on, because you never really know what’s on the other end.  Unless, of course, you use AVG, which will parse through your search results and warn you of potential malware-infected websites.  Oh yeah, it’s also free, unlike McAfee’s crapware.