The U.S. Justice Department charged 12 Russian military officers today in a history-making spearphishing scam. The 12 defendants are charged with conspiring to interfere with the 2016 presidential election by stealing information from email accounts of volunteers and employees of a U.S. presidential campaign. While the scam may sound sophisticated, it is a simple digital fraud and anyone using email can be attacked if they’re not cautious. Here's how to protect yourself.

With spearphishing, a hacker sends you an email message that tricks you into disclosing your username and password to a secure account.

The email looks like it comes from a legitimate source, such as Microsoft, Federal Express, or other companies you trust. For instance, as shown above, you might receive a message that your email inbox is "99% full." If you're in a rush or simply not a sophisticated computer user, you might just click on the link to clean up your email inbox. You may not realize that this message is a fraud and clicking on the link installs a malicious program on your computer that records your keystrokes and sends hackers your passwords.