Warning for anyone who uses Google – dangerous searches could cost you

EXPERTS have revealed the most dangerous things you can search online that increase the chance of stumbling across a virus.

Software downloads and torrents are a major target for malware which can wreak havoc on your devices.

Expensive use licenses and off-brand apps create a large demand for illegal torrents, which make it a juicy opportunity for hackers to spread dubious rip offs.

And even with free apps it can still happen.

According to Surf Shark, one in three search results for software contain potential malware.

Their research has found that Avid software is the most dangerous piece of software to look for.

The expensive tool is used by creatives to professionally edit videos.

Their findings suggest that more than 64 per cent of web addresses that come up lead to potential malware.

Substance 3D Painter, an Adobe app to sculpt 3D models on Windows desktop and in VR, is second with over 57 per cent.

Sketch software and Substance 3D Stager come in with 56 per cent.

And Maxon Cinema 4D sits at 55 per cent.

Experts have also broken their research down by category.

So on the browser front, Vivaldi Browser scores worst, with 39 per cent of URLs relating to it thought to contain malware.

Further down the list you have Microsoft Edge at four with 32 per cent, Safari and Opera at five and six respectively with 30 per cent.

Google Chrome trails just below at 29 per cent.

Researchers came up with the study by looking on Google, adding the terms “Download” and “Torrent" to each search.

They then collected URLs from the first five pages of search results and ran them through a malware detector.

The percentage of URLs with the potential malware metric reflects the percent of URLs that were flagged as "medium risk" or above by the tool used.

As such, these results only apply to apps downloaded from malicious and illegal torrenting websites - there is no reason not to download them from their official websites.

But it serves as an important reminder why you should always go via official pages and not try to avoid costs - as it could cost you a lot more in the long run if a nasty bit of malware gets onto your machine.

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