M&S: Police investigate cyber attack as FTSE 100 shares stall
The ongoing cyber attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S) is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police as the FTSE 100 retailer and its customers continue to face major disruption.
Officers from the force’s cyber crime unit are looking into reports a hacking group known as Scattered Spider may have carried out the attack.
When it first revealed the cyber attack on Tuesday last week, M&S said it was working with external cyber security experts to assist with investigating and managing the incident.
The group added that it has reported the incident to the relevant data protection supervisory authorities and the National Cyber Security Centre.
M&S initially saw problems with its contactless payments and click and collect orders last week, then on Friday it paused orders through its website and app.
Staff at a key logistics site were told to stay at home due to the continued disruption on Monday, and some stores were left with empty shelves.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We were called on Wednesday April 23 regarding a cyber incident at Marks & Spencer.
“Detectives from the Met’s cyber crime unit are investigating. Inquiries continue.”
The National Cyber Security Centre said it is also working with the retailer “to support their response to a cyber incident”.
The Met investigation comes as a recovery in M&S’s share price has stalled after seeing gains over the last two days.
M&S had seen its share price tumble from 411p to 383p after first revealing the cyber attack.
Earlier today, The Co-op revealed it has been forced to shut off parts of its IT systems after it was confronted with an attempted hack.
The Manchester-headquartered group has confirmed some of its back office and call centre services have been impacted.
However, it added that all its stores, including grocery and funeral homes are trading as usual.
A Co-op spokesman said: “We have recently experienced attempts to gain unauthorised access to some of our systems.
“As a result, we have taken proactive steps to keep our systems safe, which has resulted in a small impact to some of our back office and call centre services.
“We are not asking our members or customers to do anything differently at this point. We will continue to provide updates as necessary.”
The business owns more than 2,000 grocery stores and 800 funeral parlours across the UK.
It is not known whether the hacks of the two retailers are related.