Essential Steps to Handle Spam Emails After M&S and Co-op Breaches

An expert in cybersecurity has shared advice for all Marks & Spencer and Co-op customers who may have fallen victim to the supermarkets' data breach. M&S was forced to suspend online ordering on April 22 due to the incident, but reassured customers they didn't need to take any action. The breach also resulted in a reduction of some food items in store, whilst the company later admitted that hackers had stolen customers' personal details in the attack - possibly including contact details. On May 2, meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Co-op revealed it was continuing to experience 'sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access' their own systems. Determining if Your Information is Compromised Now, TikTok's MyCyberTips has shared a video on what you should do to determine if your information has fallen into the wrong hands - and more importantly, what to do next. 'If you've been receiving a lot of spam emails recently, you can see if your email address was involved in the M&S or Co-op data breach,' he began in a video. He continued, advising viewers to visit HaveIBeenPwned.com - where you can enter your email address to discover if you've been hacked. 'If you have been hacked, hold down on the [spam] email [on your phone] and do 'Block Sender', and this will stop the person sending emails to you,' he said. MyCyberTips added: 'Also, if your data has been stolen, make sure you change your password and set up multifactor authentication. You can even go one step further and set up spam filtering links on your email.' Protecting Your Data To do this, look at 'Blocking and Filtering' and enter the email address of those who are sending spam and will automatically divert future emails to the Spam folder. MyCyberTips closed: 'The final thing is do not click on 'Unsubscribe' links with these emails. What it shows them is your email address is active and so they're likely to spam you even more because they know that this is a legitimate email address.' The latest statement regarding the incident by M&S Chief Executive, Stuart Machin, read: 'As we continue to manage the current cyber incident, we have written to customers today to let them know that unfortunately, some personal customer information has been taken. Importantly, there is no evidence that the information has been shared and it does not include useable card or payment details, or account passwords, so there is no need for customers to take any action. 'To give customers extra peace of mind, they will be prompted to reset their password the next time they visit or log on to their M&S account and we have shared information on how to stay safe online. 'Everyone at M&S is working around the clock to get things back to normal for our customers as quickly as possible, and we are very sorry for any inconvenience they have experienced. Our stores remain open as they have throughout. Thank you for shopping with us and for your continued support, we are incredibly grateful.' Click this link or scan the QR code to receive breaking news and top stories. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice for all the latest news. Meanwhile, the Co-op said in its latest statement on May 14: 'Following the malicious third-party cyber-attack, we took early and decisive action to restrict access to our systems in order to protect our Co-op. 'We are now in the recovery phase and are taking steps to bring our systems gradually back online in a safe and controlled manner.'