Cyberattacks blight Britain’s retailers as M&S, Co-op’s systems’ breached
LONDON — Britain’s Marks & Spencer entered a second week unable to take online orders on Friday following a major cyberattack, while food retailer the Co-op Group said hackers had stolen customer data.
Some 700 million pounds ($930 million) has been wiped off the stock market value of M&S since the hack was revealed last week, and news that the Co-op and London department store Harrods have also faced incidents in recent days was described as a “wake up call” by the government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
British companies, public bodies and institutions have been hit by a wave of cyberattacks in recent years, costing them tens of millions of pounds and often months of disruption.
The 141-year-old M&S, one of the best known names in British business, stopped taking clothing and home orders through its website and app on April 25 following problems with contactless pay and click and collect services over the Easter holiday weekend.
Data taken
The Co-op first revealed a cyberattack on Wednesday but said on Friday that information relating to a significant number of its current and past members, including personal data such as names, contact details and dates of birth had been taken.
Ciaran Martin, the former CEO of the NCSC, told Reuters that so far there were no signs that the attacks on M&S, the Co-op and Harrods were linked, with the latter two possibly discovered as a result of increased vigilance following the M&S incident.
“If this can happen to M&S, it can happen to anybody,” he said, noting that after such a serious attack there was nothing unusual about the length of the recovery period.
All apologies
On Friday, M&S CEO Stuart Machin again apologized to shoppers, without saying when online ordering would resume.
“We are working day and night to manage the current cyber incident and get things back to normal for you as quickly as possible,” he said in an email sent to M&S customers.
With M&S, which has about 1,000 stores across Britain, making around one-third of its clothing and home sales online, analysts have said a short-term profit hit is inevitable.
