The most dangerous celebrity online is revealed

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The most dangerous celebrity online is revealed

2019-10-22 09:06 Last Updated At：09:10

Actress Alexis Bledel has been bookish and sweet on "Gilmore Girls" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." But the actress herself is now officially dangerous.

Cybersecurity firm McAfee on Monday crowned Bledel the most dangerous celebrity on the internet in 2019. No other celebrity was more likely to land users on websites that carry viruses or malware.

Trailing Bledel at No. 2 is talk show host James Corden, followed by "Game of Thrones" star Sophie Turner, actress Anna Kendrick, movie star Lupita Nyong'o, talk show star Jimmy Fallon, martial arts master Jackie Chan, the rappers Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj, and finally Marvel actress Tessa Thompson at No. 10.

The survey is meant to highlight the danger of clicking on suspicious links. Bad actors will attach malware and malicious links to famous names, hoping fans searching for videos on the internet will fall victim. McAfee urges internet users to consider risks associated with searching for pirated content and always apply updated security fixes.

"Consumers may not be fully aware that the searches they conduct pose risk, nor may they understand the detrimental effects that can occur when personal information is compromised in exchange for access to their favorite celebrities, movies, TV shows or music," Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at McAfee, said in a statement.

Davis explained that Bledel and Turner likely landed on the list this year due to their respective roles in the popular shows "The Handmaid's Tale" on Hulu and "Game of Thrones" on HBO, both subscriber-based services.

Talk show hosts Corden and Fallon probably landed on the list due to viral videos of their shows, while interest in "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" likely put Nyong'o so high. Lil Wayne's summer tour with Blink-182 may have prompted fans to search for illegal downloads.

Chan's name on the list may be a surprise since he has kept a relatively low profile of late, but Davis explained that rumors circulated this year that the actor might return to the big screen in "Rush Hour 4" and "The Karate Kid 2." His team denied the gossip, but cybercriminals jumped in, hoping to "target fans who were overcome by nostalgia and less cautious about their personal security."

Bledel takes over top spot from Ruby Rose, who led last year's list largely because of interest in her playing Batwoman. This year's list also indicates interest in reality stars may have waned. Kristen Cavallari and Kourtney Kardashian, who both found themselves in last year's top 10 list, dropped to No. 214 and No. 222, respectively.

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 17:37 Last Updated At：17:41

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.

Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange" to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.

The couple were staying in nearby Treviso, and had paid the fee and downloaded the QR code as required prior to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station, and anyone caught faces fines of 50 euros to 300 euros — though officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors — which last year numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cell phone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is opposed to the new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

Rodino has seen her local butcher close and families leave her neighborhood near the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term apartment rentals spring up. But she said the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for often rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii," she said. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”