Searching for celebrities can be fun - and infectious

The 27-year-old actress topped this year’s list of the most dangerous celebrity searches as ranked by security technology company McAfee Inc. Searches for Biel downloads, screensavers, videos, and photographs have a one-in-five chance of leading to a site containing a virus.

Other celebrities high on the list include songstress Beyonce Knowles, who held the number two spot for the second consecutive year, followed by actress Jennifer Aniston, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and singer Jessica Simpson. Brady’s wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, followed closely at number six.

To conduct the study, McAfee researchers fed a list of popular celebrities into the company’s database. Using search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo, they counted the number of risky website results compared with the number of safe ones.

Dangerous sites contained viruses that range from annoying to potentially catastrophic, said McAfee senior research analyst Shane Keats. These viruses may appear as offers for free ringtones, screensavers, and other opportunities that “seem too good to be true,’’ he said. Once downloaded, they overtake the computer, resulting in pop up screens or even identity theft.

“I hope we can help consumers understand that the Web is a great resource, but it has its risks and you have to use it wisely,’’ Keats said. To avoid viruses, he suggests rejecting unrealistic free offers, staying on reliable and trusted websites, and purchasing security software.

Celebrities, who generate tens of millions of searches every month, are a common target for hackers, Keats said.

“Hackers are interested in profit,’’ he said. “Where do you find the most profit? You go to where the most people are: they’re in celebrities.’’

Rounding out the top 10 are Miley Cyrus, Megan Fox and Angelina Jolie (tied for eighth), Ashley Tisdale, and Brad Pitt.

Julie Balise can be reached at jbalise@globe.com.