Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Machin has called on customers to shop in person over the bank holiday weekend, as the high street retailer continues to recover from a major cyber-attack that disrupted its online services.
The ransomware attack, which struck nearly two weeks ago, forced M&S to take parts of its IT infrastructure offline. Online orders remain suspended, and product availability in some stores has been affected.
Despite the ongoing disruption, the company has restored contactless payments and is working to resume full operations.
Machin, addressing customers via LinkedIn, said, “We are really sorry that we’ve not been able to offer you the service you expect from M&S over the last week. We are working day and night to manage the current cyber incident and get things back to normal for you as quickly as possible.”
“Our teams are doing the very best they can, and are ready to welcome you into our stores – whether you are shopping for food or for fashion, home and beauty this bank holiday weekend.”
The Metropolitan Police are investigating the attack, which has been linked to the cybercriminal group Scattered Spider. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a warning to UK businesses, urging them to improve digital defences, calling the incident a “wake-up call” for the entire retail sector.
M&S first encountered issues during the Easter weekend, when it was forced to suspend click-and-collect orders and faced problems with contactless payments.
The attack has also had financial consequences. Since the breach, over £650 million has been wiped off the retailer’s market value. The company has paused recruitment efforts, taking down all job vacancies from its website and halting its hiring process while its technology teams focus on recovery efforts.
M&S employs around 65,000 staff across its stores and London headquarters. Just last week, over 200 roles were available across its UK operations.
The attack on M&S follows a wave of cyber incidents across the UK retail sector. Co-op and Harrods have also reported being targeted, with both retailers taking precautionary steps to isolate affected systems.
