Cristiano Ronaldo. Photo credit: Jan S0L0, Flickr.
Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the most dangerous footballer in cyber space, according to research from McAfee.
The research, released to coincide with the climax of Euro 2012, found that fans searching for information on Ronaldo are more likely to come across malware and viruses than any other footballer.
Phrases likely to land Ronaldo fans in trouble include: "Cristiano Ronaldo", "Cristiano Ronaldo and download", "Cristiano Ronaldo and photos" or "Cristiano Ronaldo and videos". Malware is likely to be contained within videos and photos that users may download.
The study pulls data from McAfee’s SiteAdvisor and indicates which sites are risky when searching for names of famous players and teams participating in Euro 2012. It uses these stats to calculate a percentage of overall risk.
Ronaldo is top with 6.2%, followed by Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (5.0%) and England’s captain Steven Gerrard (4.5%). Italian players dominate the rest of the "dangerous 11", with Gianluigi Buffon (3.8), Giorgio Chiellini (3.7%), Mario Balotelli (3.4), Andrea Pirlo (3.3%), Antonio Di Natale (3.3%), Antonio Cassano (3.1%) and Daniele De Rossi (1.8%) all featuring. Andriy Shevchenko (2.8%) completes the line-up.
France and Portugal are neck and neck in the dangerous teams race, with a risk rating of 7.1%. Germany is next on 5.4%, ahead of England (5.3%), The Netherlands (5.3%), Italy (5.2%) and Spain (4.1%).
