NewsNational

Actions

Hackers changing tactics on Cyber Monday, seek your computer password

Gmail Machine Generated Replies
Posted
and last updated

Today is Cyber Monday and with all the online shopping comes hackers.

Cyber security company Check Point says this year, they're especially seeing one type of email called shipping spoofing.

“If I know I didn't buy anything from Louis Vuitton, I'm gonna know it's a phishing email," said Tony Sabaj, head of engineering with Check Point Software. “But everybody's bought something online and it's coming via USPS, DHL or FedEx in most cases, so I'm gonna be more likely to fall for a phishing attempt from a shipper than a retailer I may have never shopped at.”

One example claims to be from the postal service, but the actual email address is not from the postal service at all.

That's the best and easiest way to spot these emails.

”And you can look at that by either mousing over the display name and it'll show you the actual email address or on a mobile phone,” said Sabaj. “As I said before, I'll just hit reply. That's the easiest way to see what the email is. I won't actually reply.”

He says hackers are either after your passwords or want to put malware on your computer.

So what should you do if you click on a link in one of these emails?

Check Point says to go to the real website the email was spoofing and change your password right away.

If you use that password on any other sites, change those too.

If you're on a personal device, run a scan with whatever security software you use, and if this happened on a work device, report it right away to your corporate it.