Paris Hilton goes down as surfers shun porn for a poke

Davey Winder
Friday, 19 September 2008 05:57

Business IT - Networking

You can rely on Paris Hilton getting you into trouble online, just as you can be sure that much of the awesome power of Google is being used to search for porn. Or can you? 

Look back over a couple of months worth of iTWire news and you will find a recurring theme when it comes to malware strategy: Paris Hilton. Or, to be more precise, Paris Hilton and the promise of some kind of sexual activity.

How about the story that covered how the Koobface worm used 'Paris Hilton Tosses Dwarf On The Street' as a malware spam hook. Or the story revealing how the Rustock Botnet was being built partly thanks to Paris Hilton? 

Likewise, searching for porn has always been something of an Internet mainstay. Just recently, Wikipedia was accused of porn creep by allowing explicit imagery to be posted under the guise of simple explanation.

Sometimes you get the double whammy, with both the promise of porn and Paris Hilton in the one item. For some reason the idea of Madonna and Paris Hilton slugging it out in an online virtual porn battle sticks in my memory.

Now that could all be changing, if surveys and experts are to be believed.

First up is the general manager at Hitwise, a well known Internet research company, who has suggested that searching for porn is in decline. Bill Tancer has apparently analysed the Internet habits of some 10 million users.

His conclusion being that while 20 percent of all searches were for porn 10 years ago, today it is just 10 percent. The reason?

People would rather be poking than looking for porn. Tancer told the Telegraph newspaper that "As social networking traffic has increased, visits to porn sites have decreased."

Meanwhile, the dominance of Paris Hilton as the leading lure for malware distribution would also appear to be in decline. According to new research from McAfee using its SiteAdvisor technology, not only is Paris no longer number one in the dangerous celebrity top 15, she is not even in the list.

Brad Pitt has taken over at the top of the malware bait pops, and Beyonce is not far behind in second  place. McAfee insists that if you search for Brad Pitt, or Brad Pitt downloads, wallpaper, screensaver and images, then there is an 18 percent chance your computer will catch something nasty.

Beyonce is noted for dodgy ringtones, Justin Timberlake gets a mention for free music downloads and Rihanna for images are all hugely risky searching activities.

Jeff Green, a McAfee Senior Vice President, warns that "we have to take precautions in casually navigating the Web since many subtle sites may be rife with malware for consumers' computers."