Is that hot new Windows 10 laptop taking longer than expected this Xmas? Whatever you do: don’t click on “Undelivered Package” emails

Christmas is not only the “Most wonderful time of the year”, as the song goes, it is also the busiest for package delivery companies, often struggling to deliver presents on time, as modern day Saint Nick’s. Needless to say, the most popular tech toys and gadgets are the ones most likely to suffer from delays and back-order blues.

Even big companies like Apple and Microsoft may have trouble with providing sufficient supply of the latest MacBook Pro’s, Surface Book, Pro or Studio, among the latest and hottest gadgets on Santa’s Nice list.

Unfortunately, every Christmas has its Grinch, which, as of late, has been busy tricking users with fake “undelivered package” notifications, made to appear as if they were sent from either USPS or UPS.

These emails are not the most refined attempts at tricking users. Most of them are delivered in plain text, with a simple attachment in zip format. Sometimes the text may contain Chinese characters, which might, or might not be an attempt to further mask the true origin of the message, but one thing is certain: clicking on any link, or opening any attachment contained in these emails, leads to nothing but trouble.

The “Undelivered Package” spam is part of a massive attempt to infect as many computers as possible with several different kinds of ransomware, using macros and other automation triggers, hidden in spreadsheets, Word documents, image files, and other kinds of malware-laced media.

What makes it especially crucial to contain this threat, is the fact that most of this malware is designed not only to attach the host computer, but also to infect any other device connected to the same network, which in turns may result in the malware spreading further, by sending itself automatically to every email contact found on the host computer.

For those who are not familiar with the gravity of ransomware attacks, this pernicious kind of malware laces itself to the host computer, and quickly encrypts every file and folder, while at the same time locking the machine to a completely unusable state. When the process is complete, a message will appear asking for ransom to be paid in BitCoins, with a typically short deadline, often 24 or 36 hours, with a ransom in the ballpark of $400-$600, which increases as time passes, with some types of ransomware beginning to destroy files permanently the longer a user waits to pay the ransom.

To make matters worse, most users hit by ransomware have no knowledge of how BitCoin works, let alone enough savvy to understand the instructions given. Such instructions require the user to go to another computer, and download Tor, a variation of Mozilla Firefox, built to connect to the Internet using the Tor network, which is a method of connecting to websites using a peer-to-peer decentralized network that hides Internet activity almost completely.

Next, the victim is given instructions on how to purchase BitCoins, which can be a daunting task, and not an immediate one, while the clock is ticking and either the ransom raises, or more files are permanently lost until nothing is left.

So if you are still waiting for a late present and you get an of those pesky emails, you better watch out, you better not click, and we’re telling you why: ransomware is coming to town, and it’s anything but jolly.

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